The action taken by the council at its April 21 meeting was to postpone the vote until May 5. That’s not unusual for appointments to the EC – because nominations are not made by the mayor, as with most boards and commissions. Past practice as been for the appointments to the EC to mimic the typical two-step mayoral appointment process – with nomination at one meeting followed by confirmation at the next meeting. So council has customarily had the EC appointments on its agenda for initial consideration and postponed a vote until the next meeting.

But council sources indicate that there will likely be debate on at least Stead’s appointment. Stead was originally described in the agenda item as having served on the commission since 2007. That was subsequently corrected. City records in Legistar indicate he was among the first members to be appointed, on Sept. 18, 2000 after the council established the commission in a resolution approved on April 3, 2000.

Based on Legistar records, he has served continuously since that initial appointment. Stead also served on the city council representing Ward 5 from April 1993 through November 1994.

David Stead, right, reads a resolution he proposed at an environmental commission meeting in 2009. The resolution, which was approved, recommended removing Argo Dam. At left is Margie Teall, a city councilmember who also sat on the environmental commission at the time.

There are no term limits for Ann Arbor city boards and commissions, but several councilmembers have expressed concerns about the length of service by some members of some boards and commissions preventing a broader range of participation in local governance. Most recently the issue arose in connection with the re-appointment of Wayne Appleyard to the energy commission on Oct. 23, 2013. Also a factor in the 8-3 confirmation vote for Appleyard was his non-city residency.

Stead is vice president of Resource Recycling Systems. City council minutes show that the council has approved roughly $300,000 in contracts for consulting work by RRS for the city of Ann Arbor between 2007 and 2009.

Westphal is being put forward as the planning commission’s representative to the environmental commission. He currently serves as chair of that commission. The planning commission voted at its Jan. 23, 2014 meeting to recommend Westphal’s reappointment. Westphal did not participate in the vote on that recommendation.

Westphal, a Democrat, is contesting the Ward 2 seat to which Sally Petersen is not seeking re-election – because she is running for mayor. Nancy Kaplan, who’s currently a member of the Ann Arbor District Library board, is running for that same Ward 2 seat.

In 2013, mayor John Hieftje declined to nominate Jeff Hayner to serve on the public art commission, citing a policy against nominating candidates for city council to serve on city boards and commissions. Hayner ran for Ward 1 council against Sabra Briere that year – a race in which Briere prevailed.

Hutton was first appointed to the environmental commission in 2011 and is concluding her first three-year term.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron.

Ann Arbor water main and sanitary sewer fixed charges: 2004 to present. The proposed increase indicated for 2013 was not adopted by the city council at its Jan. 22 meeting.

The charges are due when a single- or two-family property connects to water and sewer for the first time. The charges are paid by either the contractor/developer or the property owner, depending on who makes the request for a connection.

Consent agenda items – a subset of the council’s business – are by definition voted on as a group, but councilmembers can choose to pull out items from the consent agenda for separate discussion.

That’s what happened at the Jan. 22 meeting. After an attempt to postpone the item failed, the council simply chose not to adopt the increases. But councilmembers were split on the question, with Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5), Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and mayor John Hieftje voting for the increased charges. Arguments against the increase were based on the amount of the increases, their possible impact on the likelihood of infill development in lower-income neighborhoods, and the fairness of charging new connections for depreciation costs.

The other major chunk of the council’s meeting was devoted to a briefing from Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton on the transition of police dispatch operations for the city to the sheriff’s office – Washtenaw Metro Dispatch (WMD). Highlights of that presentation included benchmark metrics. For example, WMD answers 97% of all calls within 20 seconds (4 rings). Total call processing time – from when the call is received until some unit is dispatched – ranges from 2.2 minutes for robberies to 5.16 minutes for disorderly conduct calls. According to Clayton, over the last six months since operations have been shifted to WMD from Ann Arbor police dispatch, the cost per 911 call has been decreased by more than half – from just under $40 per call to around $16 a call.

The council also established a project planning budget for a sidewalk on a quarter-mile stretch of Newport Road just north of Wines Elementary School. In other business, the council approved establishing a residential parking district off Washtenaw Avenue southeast of the University of Michigan campus, because streets in the neighborhood were being effectively used as a commuter parking lot for students taking the bus further into campus.

The new residential parking district is located in a neighborhood in the vicinity of the Beth Israel Congregation. Beth Israel came up during communications time as Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) responded to public commentary critical of him for not yet bringing a resolution to the council table on the topic of Palestinian rights. Warpehoski essentially indicated he would not be contemplating such a resolution as long as demonstrations continue outside Beth Israel on Saturdays during worship services.

Half of the public commentary at the start of the meeting was on the topic of a proposed dog park – in West Park, across the street from the New Hope Baptist Church. The proposal had been expected by supporters to be on the council’s agenda, but it had not been included. So some turned out to urge council to pursue a dog park at that location. Others simply advocated for establishing a centrally-located dog park somewhere in the city.

The decision to pull the item from the agenda had come after the city’s park advisory commission had voted in December to recommend establishing a dog park in the West Park location for a one-year trial period. But subsequently, parks staff and commission leaders were convinced by members of the New Hope congregation not to push the proposal ahead for consideration by the city council.

Sewer, Water Connections

Included as part of the consent agenda was the annual setting of fixed charges for water main and sanitary sewer improvements. The charges are due when a single- or two-family property connects to water and sewer for the first time. The charges are paid by either the contractor/developer or the property owner, depending on who makes the request for a connection.

The council was asked to adopt the result of a calculation – which has a methodology prescribed by city ordinance – to raise the charges from $15,552 and $24,665 for water and sewer, respectively, to $15,967 and $25,370. That’s an increase of a little under 3%.

The methodology prescribed by city ordinance for water mains is as follows:

“Water main improvement charge fixed charge” shall mean the charge per residential unit for water main improvements, set by city council annually by resolution and calculated on the basis of the city’s average actual cost per residential unit for the 10 most recent publicly constructed water main improvement projects preceding the date the fixed charge is set by city council, with the costs of said projects adjusted as needed to be brought current, using the most recently published Handy-Whitman Index for “Distribution Plant Mains, Average All Types.”

The methodology for sewer connections is similar.

Consent agenda items – a subset of the council’s business – are by definition voted on as a group, but councilmembers can choose to pull out items from the consent agenda for separate discussion. Items on the consent agenda are supposed to have certain characteristics – for example, the consent agenda includes all contracts under $100,000. From the city council rules:

The Consent Agenda shall consist of ordinances and resolutions considered routine. Items on the Consent Agenda may be approved by a single motion. The motion to approve the Consent Agenda shall not require the reading of the titles of items on that agenda other than ordinances. If any member of the Council objects to consideration of an item as part of the Consent Agenda, that item shall be moved to the end of the appropriate portion of the regular agenda. All contracts under $100,000.00 will be listed in the consent agenda for council approval. Contracts over $100,000.00 will be listed in Motions and Resolutions under the DS section for staff.

The item on fixed charges for water and sewer was pulled out for separate consideration by Jane Lumm (Ward 2).

Sewer, Water Connection: Initial Deliberations

Lumm led off discussion by observing that the charges had increased by almost 50% over the course of nine years – reasoning that it amounts to about a 5% increase per year. She observed that 5% is higher than the general inflation rate: Why is that?

Called to the podium to explain the connection charges were public services area administrator Craig Hupy and Elizabeth Rolla, a senior project manager with the city.

Elizabeth Rolla, senior project manager with the city of Ann Arbor.

Rolla pointed to the Handy-Whitman Index for water mains, which aggregates labor rates and material rates. Those rates typically increased about 3% per year, she said. For sewer charges, the guide is the Engineering News Record-Construction Cost Index. Any additional increase in the charges is due to the projects the city has actually done. The costs for the most recent projects are averaged, she explained. Rolla ventured that one of the reasons the costs of completed city projects have increased is that the city’s infrastructure is already built out to a certain point. The places where it is not built out are those areas where it’s more difficult to extend the infrastructure – and that might explain why there’s been an increase in the projects themselves.

An inquiry from Sabra Briere (Ward 1) drew out the rationale for calculating the charges, even when the pipe to which the property is connecting already exists.

Hupy explained that when the connection is first made – no matter how old the pipe is – that’s the first time that property owner is making an investment in the pipe. They get the same service as if it’s new. Their neighbor next door, who’s been connected all along, has been paying for depreciation. The charges put the two parcels on equal footing, and that makes it equitable for existing ratepayers, he said.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) responded to the contention of equity by recalling conversations he’d had with Hupy’s predecessor, Sue McCormick. He’d always remembered hearing about costs that went up dramatically, but didn’t hear about the unintended consequence of lowering the value of unimproved property. He pointed out that the total of the connection charges – around $41,000 – would have to be factored into the cost of acquiring and developing the property, which meant that the value of the property was less. Lower property value meant that its taxable value is less, which means less revenue for the city, he said.

Kunselman wondered how the city would promote infill development in a neighborhood like Springbrook, where houses have been torn down. Kunselman questioned the rationale for the connection charges, saying the pipe to which a property owner is being charged to connect is already in the ground and paid for. “That’s where we disagree,” Hupy responded.

Sewer, Water Connection: Deliberations – Postponement

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) observed that every year the council is asked to approve the fixed charges before the budget is approved in May. She wondered why it was not synchronized with the budget. Hupy explained that the timing is keyed to the construction season that starts in the spring. Higgins then observed that the city already has fees in place – so she wanted the setting of the fees to be based on the budget cycle. She indicated she would be willing to postpone the vote. Mayor John Hieftje confirmed with Higgins that she wasn’t actually moving for postponement at that moment.

Briere said she’d support postponement. It would also give the council time to discuss whether the fees should be raised at all. Higgins then moved for postponement of the item to the council’s first meeting in April.

Lumm wondered what was going to happen between now and April. Would the council get more information about the capital improvements plan (CIP)? Sally Petersen (Ward 2) said she already knows of a water main she would like to see replaced in Ward 2, which is not recommended in the CIP for replacement in the next construction season.

From left: Councilmembers Jane Lumm (Ward 2), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) did not see a need to postpone. While he understood the rationale for aligning the budget process and the setting of fixed charges, the data is aggregated based on the construction season. And he saw a risk that the city would be put “behind the cycle.”

Kunselman indicated support for postponement, but asked how many parcels actually had to pay such charges in the past year. Cresson Slotten, the city’s systems planning unit manager, told Kunselman it was on the order of a couple of dozen – not hundreds.

Hieftje indicated that he agreed with Taylor but said it didn’t bother him if the item was postponed. Mike Anglin (Ward 5) wasn’t clear about the nature of other councilmembers’ objections – was it because the new connections included the depreciation costs? Hupy reviewed how the fixed charges for the new connections put a property on “equal footing” with existing ratepayers. Anglin seemed to indicate agreement with that basic approach, but indicated he’d vote for postponement.

Hieftje described the fixed charges as “buying a share” in the infrastructure system that’s been built and paid for. Briere ventured that the motion to postpone reflected not so much the question of how the charges were calculated, but rather on the timing of the cycle for approval.

During this discussion, Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) had looked up the city code and noted that the mechanism is set forth in the city code. The code instructs that council that it approves the rates by annual resolution. He saw the value in coordinating with the budget from a planning perspective – but not so much that he wanted to change things now. As he thought about the work ahead of the council, he didn’t see the issue as a high priority. He suggested that the council should set the rates and move on.

Lumm expressed some concern that a reduction in the charges would result in a reduction in revenue that might have an impact on the city’s ability to undertake improvement projects. Hupy confirmed that any reduction in revenue would have some impact, but he didn’t think it would eliminate or save a project.

Outcome: The motion to postpone the vote on the fixed charges for water and sewer connections failed, with only Marcia Higgins, Sumi Kailasapathy, Sabra Briere and Stephen Kunselman voting for it.

Sewer, Water Connection: Final Deliberations

Higgins said she wouldn’t vote in favor of raising rates. She felt that the rates for 2012 were sufficient. An increase of 5% every year is a lot, she said. Kailasapathy also wouldn’t vote to support an increase. She said that if an asset is 10 years old, and someone buys into it in the ninth year, even though that person didn’t use the asset, they have to contribute nine years’ worth of depreciation. She ventured that the city needs to rethink how it determines these rates. One approach might be to consider a longer period for taking the average – not just the 10 most recent projects. That might smooth out the costs.

City councilmember Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1).

Taylor indicated he would vote in favor of increased rates. He felt that increasing rates in response to increased costs makes a great deal of sense. He ventured that someone will be on the short end of the arrangement. When there’s an improvement, Taylor said, if a property owner doesn’t pay for the depreciation, then the owner of the new connection will be “freeloading” on the other residents.

Briere sought additional clarification about whether the connection charge reflected a prospective or a retrospective payment. Responding to Hupy’s explanation that the improvement charge paid for the pipe to serve a parcel, Briere abandoned her line of questioning, saying, “I’m not getting any more than confused.”

Kunselman drew out some of the history of the city’s water and sewer improvement projects. Specific projects mentioned included one in the Arbor Oaks neighborhood and one on Baylis Drive. Kunselman questioned whether the city of Ann Arbor was charging for depreciation on a pipe placed by the former municipality of East Ann Arbor. Hupy responded by saying that the city of Ann Arbor has been maintaining it and has paid depreciation on it, and is responsible to replace it. Kunselman reiterated his view that the connection charges are a disincentive for infill development. The amount of the charges, he said, is “getting out of hand.” He called the fees punitive.

Warpehoski came back to the point that the methodology for calculating the charges is laid out in the city ordinance. He saw little discretion for the council – except perhaps on timing.

Lumm called Warpehoski’s point a good one. She was not happy that costs have been increased. She felt that the funding model needs to be addressed, but given that the amounts presented are what the city code dictates, she indicated that’s what the council should vote on.

City councilmember Marcia Higgins (Ward 4).

Hieftje said he’d appreciate it if people would support the rates as proposed as a result of the staff calculation.

Kunselman noted that the city code does not say that the council must do anything – indicating that only the methodology is prescribed. The council has to vote on the increase, but the code doesn’t say the council has to vote yes. He wouldn’t vote for a rate increase, he said. He wanted to encourage some infill development. Higgins said Kunselman was absolutely correct – that the council can say yes or no.

Lumm briefly put forward an amendment to the resolution saying that the existing rates would be retained. Higgins indicated that voting no on the existing resolution would have the same effect – so Lumm withdrew the amendment.

Outcome: The new rates failed on a 4-6 vote. Voting for the rate increases were Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5), Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and mayor John Hieftje. Voting against it were Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1), Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Jane Lumm (Ward 2), and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3). Margie Teall (Ward 4) was absent.

County Dispatch Services

As part of the city administrator’s communications, Steve Powers introduced Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton to give an update on the first six months of operations since the city began contracting for 911 dispatch services with the sheriff’s office. [.pdf of slides presented by Clayton]

Clayton led off with an historical overview.

• 2010 January: City of Ypsilanti contracted with the sheriff’s office for dispatch services.
• 2010 May: Sheriff’s office and Ann Arbor police department co-located dispatch operations. Agreement for the co-location came at a Dec. 9, 2009 meeting of the city council. Authorization to fund technology related to the co-location came at the council’s Jan. 19, 2010 meeting.
• 2011 March: First strategic discussions between sheriff and police chief.
• 2011 April: Joint city/county task force formed.
• 2011 June: First public discussion of opportunity for consolidation. Chronicle coverage: “Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Joint 911 Dispatch.”
• 2011 September: Ann Arbor city council working session.
• 2011 December: Ann Arbor city council approves contract proposal at its Dec. 6, 2011 meeting.
• 2012 January: Washtenaw County board of commissioners approves contract proposal at its Jan. 18, 2012 meeting.
• 2012: WCSO assumes full responsibility for Ann Arbor dispatch services.

Joining Clayton at the podium were Spring Tremaine and Rochelle Noonan. Tremaine was hired as dispatch operations manager in 2012 upon retiring as a lieutenant with the Ann Arbor police department after 25 years of service. Rochelle Noonan is dispatch operations coordinator, and has worked for the sheriff’s office since 2003.

Highlights of the presentation included a change in the staffing model. A large part of the cost savings stem from eliminating the duplication of a position – that of the LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network ) officer. Clayton also highlighted the labor union’s agreement to add part-time staff, which allows for more scheduling flexibility.

Staffing levels before and after the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office started providing 911 dispatch services for the city of Ann Arbor.

Clayton stressed that the emphasis is on quality of service. The sheriff’s office is tracking various metrics, in order to establish benchmarks for operations, service quality, financials, and training.

Through the first six months, 97% of calls are being answered within 20 seconds (four rings), which compares favorably to a NENA (National Emergency Number Association) standard.

By way of additional background, the NENA standard also calls for 90% of calls to be answered within 10 seconds – for the hour of the day with the busiest call volume. Washtenaw Metro Dispatch is achieving call answer times of less than 10 seconds for 86% of all calls. From the NENA standard:

3.1 Standard for answering 9-1-1 Calls. Ninety percent (90%) of all 9-1-1 calls arriving at the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) shall be answered within ten (10) seconds during the busy hour (the hour each day with the greatest call volume, as defined in the NENA Master Glossary 00-001). Ninety-five (95%) of all 9-1-1 calls should be answered within twenty (20) seconds.

Time to answer emergency calls: Washtenaw Metro Dispatch.

Speed to compete dispatching – from the time a call comes in to the time an officer is sent to the scene – was also broken down by incident type.

Washtenaw Metro Dispatch: Time to dispatch by incident type.

Complaints about how 911 dispatch is handled are also logged and tracked. Some come from responding officers, while others come from the 911 caller. Each one is investigated to determine if it was founded or not. Examples of founded complaints include data entry mistakes (e.g. a wrong license number), notifying the wrong wrecker company, or dispatching an officer who was not the nearest available for that incident.

The number of founded complaints by agency for which Washtenaw County Metro dispatch provides services correlates roughly to the call volume per agency:

Washtenaw Metro Dispatch – founded complaints by agency: Michigan State Police (MSP), Northfield Township Police Department (NTPD), Ypsilanti Police Department (YPD), Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) and Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO).

Washtenaw Metro Dispatch – call volume by agency: Northfield Township Police Department (NTPD), Ypsilanti Police Department (YPD), Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) and Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO).

Questions from councilmembers included the basics of how dispatching works, especially with respect to fire dispatching, which has been handled by Huron Valley Ambulance since Dec. 1, 2009.

Here’s a sketch of how it previously worked:

[Call]
↓
[911 center]
[fire-protection-related] → [send firetrucks]
[any of 5 "auto-send" medicals] → [send firetrucks]
[any of 28 other medicals]
↓
[HVA]
[as medical information dictates] → [send ambulances]
[as medical information dictates]
↓
[911 center]
[based on HVA request] → [send firetrucks]

-

Since Dec. 1, 2009 the dispatching is handled roughly like this:

-

[Call]
↓
[911 center]
[fire-protection-related or medical-related]
↓
[HVA]
[as medical information dictates] → [send ambulances and/or firetrucks]
[as fire protection information dictates] → [send firetrucks]

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) ventured that it might be worth re-examining the contract with HVA and considering a further consolidation of dispatch operations. City administrator Steve Powers indicated that putting all dispatching in the same room would be a “significant undertaking” and would take “more than a memo from the administrator.” Powers based his assessment on his experience having overseen a complete dispatch consolidation as county administrator in Marquette County. [Powers served in that position for over a decade before being hired as Ann Arbor city administrator in 2011.]

Ann Arbor city administrator Steve Powers signs agendas for students so they can prove they completed a class assignment.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) passed along a concern from a resident who had called 911, and HVA was dispatched. The resident had been surprised to get a bill. Had the resident known there would be a charge, they wouldn’t have called. The explanation offered to Lumm was that the HVA dispatcher makes a judgment about who to send to the scene – a fire truck or ambulance. The Washtenaw Metro Dispatch operators aren’t in a position to quiz a caller to determine and convey information about possible costs.

John Seto, Ann Arbor’s police chief, added that this is an issue that Ann Arbor fire chief Chuck Hubbard is looking at, with an eye toward educating residents about what they can expect when they call 911.

Kunselman added that he knows it’s possible to call 911 and state clearly that “This not an emergency,” and that the call taker would then route the call appropriately. He asked if an educational effort could be made through the Community Television Network (CTN) so that residents could improve their role as citizens when they call for service. Seto indicated he’d follow up with the city’s communications unit.

Outcome: This was an informational update, and did not require a vote by council.

Residential Parking Permit District

The council was asked to approve funding for signs and to authorize a new residential parking district in Ann Arbor – in a neighborhood about a mile southeast of the University of Michigan campus, off Washtenaw Avenue. [.jpg of map showing relation of district to campus]

According to the staff memo accompanying the city council’s agenda item, the rationale for the district is that residents in the area have “extreme parking problems due to the students parking in their neighborhood and then bussing into campus.” Sixty percent of residents in the area signed a petition requesting that the district be established.

Signs for each of the 12 block faces in the district – which includes sections of Austin Avenue, Norway Road and Fair Oaks – will cost a total of $1,800, an amount that was not previously included in the city’s FY 2013 budget.

Permits are sold annually only to residents of the parking district. Without a permit, it will not be lawful to park on the street for more than two hours from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Fees are $50 per permit, per calendar year. Replacement permits are $15.

The city council was asked to approve the $1,800 appropriation from the city’s general fund balance. Because the action changed the budget, it required eight votes to pass.

The city’s ordinance empowers the city administrator to designate a residential parking district, after notifying the city council. From Chapter 126 Article 6 10:66 on residential parking districts:

If a residential area has excessive parking of vehicles not owned by residents of the area, the Administrator may, after notice to City Council, issue a traffic control order designating a residential parking district. The city shall install signs in a residential parking district indicating that parking time limits do not apply to vehicles with permits. After receiving evidence of residency within a parking district, the city shall issue permits for the vehicles of residents of the district. If a permit is displayed on a vehicle in accordance with the rules of the transportation department, it shall not be a violation to park it in excess of the time limits in the residential district named on the permit. The city council may establish permit fees by resolution.

In addition to the district in the area of Austin Avenue, Norway Road and Fair Oaks, the city has at least eight other residential parking districts.

The minimal council discussion consisted of a brief remark from Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), who said he was happy to see the residential parking district come to pass. The city streets in the area had effectively become a commuter lot. He was glad residents got together and, with the help of city staff, established the district.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the new residential parking district.

Sidewalk Repair Inside DDA District

The council was asked to approve an agreement with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority covering sidewalk repair inside the geographic district of the DDA. Under terms of the agreement, sidewalks inside the district will be repaired by the city of Ann Arbor – using funds captured by the DDA from the city’s sidewalk repair millage, under the DDA’s standard tax increment finance (TIF) mechanism.

Voters approved the 1/8 mill sidewalk repair millage in November of 2011. The city council resolution placing the question on the ballot that year excluded certain properties inside the DDA district – those that are not one- and two-family houses – from the city’s sidewalk repair program that’s funded with the millage proceeds.

The council subsequently enacted an ordinance, on June 4, 2012, that assigns responsibility for sidewalk maintenance and repair to the city of Ann Arbor. But for the excluded properties within the DDA, the ordinance provides the option that the DDA itself handles repair of adjacent sidewalks or that the DDA pays the city to do the work.

It’s an agreement related to the second of those two options that the city council was asked to approve.

Outcome: The council vote unanimously, without deliberations, to approve two one-year agreements with the DDA.

Newport Sidewalk Planning Budget

The council was asked to approve a planning budget of $15,000 for a quarter-mile stretch of Newport Road – from Wines Elementary School northward to Riverwood. The stretch of road might see construction of a public sidewalk by the summer of 2014. The preliminary $15,000 budget includes preliminary design and construction cost estimates, an evaluation of different funding scenarios, and gathering additional public feedback on the project.

The project has a background that dates back at least to Nov. 15, 2011, when the city held the first of two meetings in response to requests from residents who live in the neighborhood to consider construction of a safe walking path to the school.

A staff memo accompanying the resolution indicates that the city considered a much longer project that would have extended roughly a mile – all the way to the city limits near Holyoke Lane. But based on feedback from public meetings, the city opted for a reduced version of the project. There had been concern about the impact of a non-motorized sidewalk  on natural features and on the “rural character” of Newport Road along that stretch.

Some residents whose property does not front the section of the sidewalk that’s being contemplated have nevertheless indicated a willingness to pay a special assessment to fund the project. That sentiment was conveyed in a 79-signature petition received by the city in late 2012. Special assessments typically apply to just properties immediately adjacent to the sidewalk.

Funds generated from the sidewalk repair millage, approved by voters in 2011, can be spent only on repairing existing sidewalks, not to construct new sections of sidewalk to fill in gaps.

The timeline indicated in the staff memo provided for four months – from February to May – to perform a topographical analysis, prepare preliminary alternatives/cost estimates, and investigate special assessment and other funding opportunities. The month of June would be used to get additional feedback from the public. In August, the city council would authorize final design, construction and funding. From September this year through February 2014, the project would be designed and the multiple, sequenced special assessment resolutions would move through the city council, then the construction would be bid out. Following that general timeframe would allow construction sometime in the summer of 2014.

This is the second sidewalk design project budget that the council has authorized in the last two months. On Nov. 19, 2012, the council approved a $15,000 project budget to design alternatives for a stretch along Scio Church Road. That also came in response to a petition submitted to the city with over 70 signatures.

On Sept. 17, 2012, the council had considered but rejected a proposal added late to that meeting’s agenda to establish a five-year plan to eliminate sidewalk gaps in the city.

Newport Sidewalk Planning Budget: Public Comment

Kathy Griswold spoke in support of the two sidewalk resolutions – especially the one for Newport Road. She called it a good first step. But she encouraged the city to look at a comprehensive system for identifying gaps in the sidewalks – which she believed was taking place now. She also wanted the city to prioritize which gaps to fill and to find funding. She mentioned an AnnArbor.com post that generated 305 comments, which she attributed to confusion about the city’s crosswalk ordinance language. When she tried to find the ordinance language online, she visited the city’s Walk Bike Drive, which she contended had a link to the old ordinance. So she understood why people are confused. She said she was appreciative of the Ann Arbor police department’s efforts and the safety they provide to the community, saying that neither they nor the traffic engineers should be blamed. She asked the council to take the political element out of transportation safety and engineering in this community.

By way of background, the wording of the current ordinance – after two revisions in two years by the city council – reads as follows:

10:148. – Pedestrians crossing streets.
(a) When traffic-control signals are not in place or are not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop before entering a crosswalk and yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian stopped at the curb, curb line or ramp leading to a crosswalk and to every pedestrian within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger.
(b) A pedestrian shall not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into a path of a vehicle that is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
(c) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Griswold has previously pointed out the tension that results from motorists following the ordinance while school crossing safety patrol members follow the AAA safety manual for school crossing guards, which includes the directive, “Never allow students to walk in front of a car that stops to allow them to cross.”

Newport Sidewalk Planning Budget: Council Deliberations

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) led off deliberations on the agenda item by describing how residents along Newport Road have requested installation of a sidewalk for over a year. That was stimulated in part by concern that public school busing might become “a thing of the past,” she said. If their children have to walk to school or to a park, then they would prefer to do it off the street instead of on the street.

Briere noted that despite the fact that the project had been reduced in scale, many residents haven’t given up hope that the sidewalk would eventually go all the way to the city line. She thanked everybody who’s worked so hard. She encouraged the council to improve sidewalks in the city by filling in this gap on Newport. She noted that the project budget now is for design – and actual construction costs would be borne by residents who live in the neighborhood of Newport Road.

From left: City councilmembers Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2) and Jane Lumm (Ward 2).

Addressing the general city-wide issue of sidewalk gaps, mayor John Hieftje indicated that each gap would require a unique solution. Sally Petersen (Ward 2) asked if there would be cost savings to the Ann Arbor Public Schools – because AAPS wouldn’t need to provide busing services to the neighborhood. City administrator Steve Powers indicated by way of responding to Petersen that he did not know that level of detail about the AAPS budget, but it was not part of the city staff analysis for the Newport Road sidewalk project. Powers noted that as far as AAPS reviewing its transportation plans, that’s part of a larger strategic direction that the district might be taking: providing safer routes to school for children.

Craig Hupy, the city’s public services area administrator, added that AAPS had identified two sidewalk gaps as priorities – the one on Newport and one near Clague Middle School, which is located on Nixon Road. The Clague sidewalk is being constructed as part of the Safe Routes to School initiative, Hupy said.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) asked if the petition that residents had submitted was the initial step in starting the special assessment district to provide funding for the project. He wanted to know if the $15,000 design budget that the council was voting on would be wrapped into the total project budget to be funded through a special assessment. Hupy told Kunselman that if the project comes to fruition, and a special assessment provides the funding, then the $15,000 for design would be part of the project budget and the general fund would eventually be “made whole.” But that might take five, ten or fifteen years to happen, Hupy cautioned.

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) thanked Briere for her work on this. He’d attended the first public meeting when residents were trying to get a sidewalk installed all the way up Newport to the city line.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) followed up on Petersen’s comment about school busing, asking if parents would find the cessation of busing acceptable. Briere responded to Higgins by saying that she’s gone out to Wines Elementary School to enjoy their First Friday walk, and stood there in cold weather watching the kids walk and bike with parents over the bridge. The neighborhood is supportive of this project, she said. It’s not a long distance, and parents seem happy to have their kids walk to school, she noted, but they want them to be safe.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the $15,000 budget for the design of the Newport Road sidewalk.

Rezoning of Limited Geddes Area

The council was asked to give initial approval to rezoning six parcels in the northeast Ann Arbor Hills neighborhood. The sites are to be rezoned from R1B to R1C. Both are types of single-family dwelling districts. The locations are 2014 Geddes Ave.; 2024 Geddes Ave.; 520 Onondaga St.; 2025 Seneca Ave.; 2023 Seneca Ave.; and 2019 Seneca Ave. [.jpg aerial view of parcels] These are six parcels in a block of 10 sites – the other four sites are already zoned R1C.

The planning commission had recommended the rezoning at its Nov. 20, 2012 meeting. The planning commission had considered the rezoning after the city council directed the planning staff to study the issue of rezoning the parcels. That direction came at the council’s Sept. 17, 2012 meeting.

According to a staff memo, the direction on the rezoning came from city council at the request of property owners: Raymond Maturo and Ann Mulhern; Joseph and Suzanne Upton; Rishindra and Gwendolyn Reddy; Shahrzad Vazirzadeh and Chad Patterson; Vassilios Lambropoulos and Artemis Leontis; and the Clan Crawford Jr. Trust.

R1B zoning requires a minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet and a minimum lot width of 70 feet. Three of the parcels don’t conform with that zoning. Under the proposed R1C zoning, all parcels would conform with required lot size and width. The rezoning would potentially allow three of the parcels – each lot size currently about 17,500 square feet – to be divided in the future, if other city code requirements are met.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to give initial approval to the rezoning requests. Because a change to zoning is a change to the city’s set of ordinances, to be enacted it will require a second vote after a public hearing at a future meeting of the council.

Appointments

The council acted on two appointments at its Jan. 22 meeting.

Appointments: Environmental Commission

The council considered a resolution re-appointing Christopher Graham to serve on the city of Ann Arbor’s environmental commission. The resolution was attached to the previous council meeting’s agenda as a communication item to alert councilmembers that their vote to confirm him would be forthcoming.

Graham was initially appointed in 2006 and has served two three-year terms on the commission. Graham is also a member of the executive committee of the Michigan Environmental Council.

During the brief council remarks, Sabra Briere (Ward 1), who serves as one of two city council representatives to the commission, said Graham had recently been elected chair, so she hoped that the council would agree to his re-appointment.

Outcome: The city council voted unanimously to re-appoint Graham to serve on the city environmental commission.

Appointments: Taxicab Board

At the conclusion of the meeting, mayor John Hieftje announced several nominations to boards and commissions, including that of Eric Sturgis to the taxicab board. Ordinarily, appointments take place in a two-step process: (1) names are nominated at a meeting of the city council; and (2) at a subsequent meeting, the council votes to confirm the appointment.

City councilmember Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

However, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) – who serves as the city council representative to the taxicab board – asked that Sturgis be appointed in a one-step process with the vote taken that same evening. Kunselman pointed out that the taxicab board had a meeting on Thursday that week, and it would be useful to have Sturgis attend. [It turned out that Sturgis was not able to attend that meeting, but the board still achieved a quorum.]

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) ventured that it would be useful if Sturgis would update his resume, because the one he’d included with his application indicated he didn’t live in the city of Ann Arbor (though the application itself indicated he did).

Outcome: The city council voted unanimously to appoint Eric Sturgis to serve on the city taxicab board.

Communications and Commentary

Every city council agenda contains multiple slots for city councilmembers and the city administrator to give updates or make announcements about important issues that are coming before the city council. And every meeting typically includes public commentary on subjects not necessarily on the agenda.

Comm/Comm: Council Public Art Committee

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) gave a brief update on the work of a city council committee that was formed to review the city’s Percent for Art ordinance – in the context of a failed public art millage in November 2012. Briere reported that the committee had met four times so far, including just before that evening’s council meeting. [The group consists of Briere, Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Margie Teall (Ward 4) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). They were appointed at the council's Dec. 3, 2012 meeting, when the council voted to temporarily halt the expenditure of funds accumulated as a result of the city's Percent for Art ordinance.]

Briere reported that the committee has discussed concerns with the existing ordinance. At this point, the committee is considering changes to the Percent for Art ordinance and to the ordinance on boards and commissions that defines the public art commission – which are the two tasks identified in the council resolution appointing that committee. The committee is also looking for creative ways for art to be administered in the city, although the committee didn’t have a mandate to do that, Briere allowed.

Comm/Comm: Urban Core Transportation

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) noted that meetings were occurring between Ann Arbor Transportation Authority staff and Ann Arbor councilmembers. She described other meetings the AATA was having, with elected leaders from the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township, among others. She seemed to indicate some skepticism that the description of “urban core leaders” was apt, saying that some of the jurisdictions included were those that had opted out of the newly incorporated Act 196 transit authority.

Lumm wanted to make sure that resources are not wasted in planning for expansion of services. She questioned whether it made sense to proceed with this more local effort while the impact of the newly created regional transit authority (RTA) is not yet clearly understood. [The RTA covers the counties of Washtenaw, Wayne, Macomb and Oakland, as well as the city of Detroit. For more detailed background on Lumm's remarks, see Chronicle coverage: "AATA OKs Labor, Agency Fee Accords."]

Lumm made an appeal for a city council working session to be held on the topic.

Comm/Comm: Solid Waste Plan

Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5), who is one of two city council appointees to the city’s environmental commission, announced that the environmental commission would hold hearings on the updated city solid waste plan. Those hearings were to take place on Jan. 24. The plan would be coming before the city council in a few weeks, he said.

Comm/Comm: Cold Weather

In the context of the recent cold weather, mayor John Hieftje indicated that it had been reported that no one had been forced to sleep outside who didn’t want to be sheltered – anyone who wanted to be sheltered had been sheltered, he said. He indicated that he got data back from the Delonis Center on that. The Delonis Center had also figured out how to accommodate those who are under the influence of drugs and alcohol, he said.

Comm/Comm: Five-Parcel Plan

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) followed up on a Jan. 14 city council work session, which included a presentation from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority on the five city-owned parcels that are part of the Connecting William Street project. The DDA had undertaken the project under the council’s direction, Anglin said, to come back to the council after receiving public input on the future use of the city-owned land.

Anglin felt the DDA did a good job of presenting its perspective, but he felt there was a gap in the presentation. He noted that a number of councilmembers had responded at the working session to that gap. The city’s park advisory commission had urged that there be more open green space in the downtown, he said – saying that was a clear mandate from PAC. So he urged the public to make their voices heard in the new year, suggesting that members of the public might like to consider that a New Year’s resolution. He encouraged people to contact the DDA, PAC, and the city council, to let those public bodies know what should happen on the five downtown city-owned parcels. “You should speak up and tell us what you want,” he said.

At its meeting on Jan. 15, 2013, PAC had decided to study for the next four to six months the views they’d heard from the council and within their own body regarding downtown parks and open space, in order to make recommendations to the council. Anglin indicated a preference for confining the discussion to just the five parcels – because that was the scope of the Connecting William Street project. The CWS project had not included all the land in the downtown area.

Anglin encouraged people to speak up so that the council could hear what the “townspeople really do want.” He appreciated the efforts of groups who had spoken about the use of the space on the top of the underground parking garage as a park. [That space, on South Fifth Avenue, is the focus of advocacy by the Library Green.] Anglin said a group advocating for leaving the space open was looking into whether the top of the garage was actually “build-able,” as had been envisioned by the DDA.

Comm/Comm: Dog Park in West Park

Two members of New Hope Baptist Church had addressed the council at its Jan. 7, 2013 meeting about a proposed dog park in West Park, directly across from the New Hope Baptist Church on Chapin Street. The proposed location had been recommended by the park advisory commission (PAC) at its Dec. 18, 2012 meeting. The item had been expected to be on the council’s Jan. 22 agenda, but it was announced at the Jan. 15, 2012 meeting of PAC that the West Park dog park would not appear on the council’s agenda. At a meeting with church leaders – after PAC’s December vote – it had emerged that the church concerns were more deeply rooted than concerns about noise, safety and smell, and reflected cultural differences about what it means to have a dog park so close to their place of worship.

During public commentary at the council’s Jan. 22 meeting, Aina Bernier introduced herself as a member of the dog owners community. She urged the council to establish a dog park somewhere in West Park. Citing concerns about the size of her carbon footprint, she said she would never drive to one of the two dog parks on the outskirts of town to walk her dog. She read aloud a written statement from another dog owner, Christopher Hewitt. His statement commended efforts of PAC to address the need for a dog park. Ann Arbor lacks a sizable central dog park, and the need for amenities in the central area will only decrease, Hewitt’s statement continued. The lack of a dog park in the central area was one reason he and his wife decided against living there. Dog owners need a practical alternative for exercising dogs, the statement continued, and existing parks aren’t fully utilized – given the amount of money that the city spends on them.

Also addressing the council on the topic of a West Park dog park was John Lawter, who just recently concluded his service on PAC. In December, Lawter had voted as a member of that body to recommend that a provisional dog park be established at the West Park location. He told the council he was there because he’s dismayed that the dog park had been pulled from the agenda based on concerns expressed by New Hope Baptist Church. He contended the concerns stemmed from a gross misunderstanding of canine behavior.

Lawter told the council that as a former member of PAC who’s worked on the issue for years, he was skeptical that the commitment to find an alternative site in the central area would be found. He then ticked through some of the objections to the proposed location inside West Park. As for the contention that the proposed area was too small, he pointed out that playgrounds come in all sizes. Two similarly-sized dog parks could be found in the city of Saline, he said. [Mill Pond Park has an area described on the city's website as a one-acre facility. The proposed area in West Park was described as about a quarter acre. One of the city of Ann Arbor's two existing dog parks is 10 acres, while the other is slightly smaller than a soccer field, or about an acre.]

Lawter took on the idea that a dog park land use is incompatible with a church use by pointing to a dog park in Pinckney, north of Ann Arbor, where the Arise Church owns and operates a dog park that’s open to the public. The church credits it with increasing the size of its congregation. Addressing the concern that the site might become crowded, Lawter asked if the city would not build a playground out of concern that there are too many kids in the neighborhood. Of course not, he said, answering his own question – and the city would begin looking for an additional site after building it.

If people had a concern that dogs smell, bark incessantly and are dangerous, then Lawter suggested they visit the city’s two existing dog parks to see for themselves what goes on there. People who take the time to go to a dog park are not the kind of people who own dangerous, dirty or obnoxious dogs, he contended. People who use dog parks self-police for picking up after their own dogs.

If the site was rejected because of cultural differences, then he argued that no decision should be based solely on one culture’s desires compared to those of another culture. Ann Arbor is a culturally diverse city, he said, and Ann Arbor’s dog owners are also culturally diverse – and parks should be open to all cultures, including “the four-legged variety,” he added. If members of the New Hope congregation are afraid of dogs – and Lawter said he believed they were sincere in that fear – then he said to the members of the congregation: “Please be open to change. Let us put our dog park in. Let us show you there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Fear is an ugly thing, he said, and it should be “put down” whenever possible. The proposal as a temporary facility that could be removed after a year if it’s a problem was, Lawter felt, a fair compromise.

Another speaker with a connection to PAC was Melissa Stults, a recently-appointed commissioner. She was speaking, however, as a resident of Ann Arbor and a dog owner, who was relatively new in town. She wanted to speak to show her support for more dog parks in the city. She pointed to the social benefits of providing amenities for dog owners – saying that after eight months in Ann Arbor, she’s made connections in her neighborhood only to people she meets walking their dogs. That group is an important reason that makes her feel like she belongs here.

Virginia Gordan told the council she’s been a resident of Ann Arbor for more than 30 years, and she was speaking in support of more dog parks. The item establishing the dog park area in West Park was supposed to be on the city council agenda that night, she noted. The last action taken had been PAC’s resolution in December recommending that the dog park area be established. She was dismayed that somehow it had been removed from the agenda.

Gordan said she was very perplexed by the city’s continued reluctance to establish neighborhood dog parks. Other cities have such parks or have parks with off-leash hours. Other cities have had such amenities for 10-20 years – so the concept is not new. But establishing dog parks in Ann Arbor is very difficult, for reasons she did not understand. Out of all the parks in Ann Arbor [157 total] only two were dog parks – and they were on the outskirts of town. There needs to be some proportionality, she said. She certainly wholeheartedly supported other recreational facilities provided by the city, which she described as very expensive but which she has no interest in – like golf, swimming, or baseball. She was happy to pay taxes to support those activities for those who enjoy them. But she contended there should be the same kind of respect for dog parks.

Harold Kirchen introduced himself as one of the Ann Arbor dog owners. Like John Lawter, he pointed to the Arise Church dog park in Pinckney as an example of the possible coexistence of a church with a dog park. A dog park is not just a place for dogs to get exercise, he said. Like Missy Stults, Kirchen also pointed out that dog parks were a way for dog owners to make friends. He called on PAC to allay the fears that people had about dog parks and not to be swayed by NIMBY complaints.

Comm/Comm: Israel/Palestine

Blaine Coleman led off by alluding to remarks made by Thomas Partridge during his turn of public commentary (see below). Partridge had implicitly criticized Coleman’s choice of topic, but had asked the council to pass a resolution calling on the federal government to appropriate funding to provide affordable housing, transportation, health care and education throughout the country. Coleman told the council that Partridge’s proposed resolution makes a lot of sense – because it makes sense to spend billions on infrastructure, and the city council should be jumping to pass a resolution like that. But Coleman contended that the council would not pass a resolution like that, and quoted writings of Martin Luther King Jr. in support of that contention, which were recorded during the Vietnam War: “… and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.” Coleman drew a comparison of the inability of the U.S. simultaneously to provide for domestic needs and fight the Vietnam War, and current conditions that have the U.S. in continued military engagement abroad. The U.S. is “gobbling up the resources of the planet,” he said.

Coleman continued by contending that Israel has massacred thousands of Arabs and Palestinians. In that context, Coleman asked why Warpehoski would promise not to make a vote as a councilmember that is critical of Israel – given that Warpehoski is the executive director of a peace group [Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice]. Coleman wondered if anyone had asked Warpehoski to make such a promise and if Warpehoski had received anything in return for making that promise.

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani told the council she was there to speak about what she always does – to ask the council to boycott Israel, which she called a “Nazi, racist state” throughout her remarks. Israel receives billions of dollars a year in U.S. aid to maintain colonial, violent conditions, she said. Israeli soldiers, she claimed, would shoot children dead on sight. Ann Arbor councilmembers drink their coffee and read their emails but do nothing to stop what she described as genocide. She called for stopping aid to Israel. She contended there was a global movement toward a boycott of Israel, and she asked people not to buy things that are made in Israel. She noted that she’s been addressing the council since 2002. Of the councilmembers who have served, only one person – Chuck Warpehoski – has indicated he is against some of the violence Israel commits. Warpehoski has said he’s against military aid to Israel, Savabieasfahani said. She wanted Warpehoski to act on that. Instead, she said, he sits quietly and does nothing.

Councilmembers typically don’t respond – either directly or indirectly – to public commentary remarks. However, during council communications time, Warpehoski responded to the comments of Coleman and Savabieasfahani. He began by comparing them to two-year-olds – saying that his daughter is two years old and sometimes acts in ways that are designed to get attention and that generally he does not respond to that kind of attention-seeking behavior. But in this case, he indicated that it was important to respond. When he ran for office, he continued, he did a lot of “discernment.” He felt his duty as a councilmember is to serve the community. And he’d come to a personal decision that the best way he could serve the community – given the “noise” around the Israel-Palestine issue – would be to stay away from it as long as the demonstrations continue outside the Beth Israel synagogue.

Comm/Comm: Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads

During communications time, Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) said he’d been impressed with sheriff Jerry Clayton. Warpehoski mention that he and Clayton had attended a meeting where Clayton had recommended that people read Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” The book is part of the Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads program this year.

Comm/Comm: Corrections to the Minutes

Sally Petersen (Ward 2) asked that the minutes of the Jan. 7 special session be revised to reflect the fact that Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) was present for the closed session, arriving about 6:15 p.m., and present when the meeting reconvened at 6:47 p.m. [Kailasapathy had not been present when the attendance roll call was taken or when the roll call vote to enter into a closed session was taken.]

Comm/Comm: Energy

A U.S. Department of Energy grant accepted by the council at it previous meeting on Jan. 7, 2103 was the starting point for remarks made by Kermit Schlansker during public commentary. The problem with getting money for a bad project is that it takes money away from a good project, Schlansker said. He noted that the DOE’s award of the wind turbine grant to Ann Arbor illustrates his contention that DOE does not know how to spend its money – and needs to be led by local units of government, like cities. There’s nothing new about windmills, he said. He cited the rooftop of Mitchell Elementary and Scarlett Middle schools as a good place to install solar panels. He mentioned that last summer during a heat wave, the amount of power had dwindled in his part of the city. He said the DOE money would be better spent buying land to construct an energy farm.

Comm/Comm: Affordable Services

Thomas Partridge introduced himself as a resident of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, Michigan’s 18th senate district and 53rd house district, noting that he’s run for office to represent those districts. He said he still has finance committees from those campaigns and will be a candidate in 2014. He said he was there during an important week celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. – not to talk about dog parks or about trying to cause turmoil in Ann Arbor by using international controversy. He asked the council to pass a resolution calling on the White House to fund affordable transportation, health care, housing, and education and to end homelessness throughout the country. He asked for the recall of Gov. Rick Snyder and mayor John Hieftje.

Partridge also addressed the council during public commentary at the conclusion of the meeting. He was critical of the city that its offices were closed on Jan. 21 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when other organizations like the University of Michigan had scheduled a full two weeks of events that were related to MLK Day. Partridge reported that he’d attended the keynote address by Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, but had not seen any city councilmembers at that event. He called on the council to reset its moral and public policy compass to advance the cause of the most vulnerable. Partridge found it inexplicable that Hieftje appeared to ignore the personal attacks against Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) by those he ventured might be paid representatives of Palestine. He contended that Warpehoski was being criticized because he appears to be a Christian who ran on an agenda of peace and justice, not on causing more conflict in the city of Ann Arbor.

Present: Jane Lumm, Mike Anglin, Sabra Briere, Sumi Kailasapathy, Sally Petersen, Stephen Kunselman, Marcia Higgins, John Hieftje, Christopher Taylor, Chuck Warpehoski.

Absent: Margie Teall.

Next council meeting: Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor council chambers at 301 E. Huron. [Check Chronicle event listings to confirm date]

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Rochelle Lento, right, is an attorney with Dykema who is doing pro bono work for the Ann Arbor housing commission. Seated next to her is Margie Teall, Ward 4 city councilmember and council liaison to the commission. Next to Teall is Kevin McDonald, senior assistant city attorney. The commission’s Nov. 14 meeting was held at Miller Manor, one of the city’s public housing complexes.

The Ann Arbor housing commission is the local agency responsible for administering the city’s federally-funded public housing and Section 8 rent subsidies for low-income residents. It manages 360 public housing units, including large complexes like Baker Commons at Main and Packard. Most of its properties were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and are in need of serious maintenance and upgrades that aren’t covered by federal funding.

To address this issue, the AAHC has applied for a new program offered by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The rental assistance demonstration program, known as RAD, is a mechanism to convert public housing units into public/private developments that in turn provide rental assistance through long-term Section 8 subsidy vouchers that are tied to those developments. It would also mean that ownership of some Ann Arbor public housing properties would be transferred to a new entity, in which the AAHC would have only a small ownership stake – likely 1% or less. The arrangement would give AAHC access to private financing to renovate the current public housing properties, using tax credit financing, loans, equity or grants that are not otherwise available to the housing commission.

HUD is expected to inform AAHC this month about whether it’s been selected for the program.

Last month, the housing commission board took additional action to lay the groundwork for these changes. The board approved amendments to bylaws and articles of incorporation for an AAHC nonprofit subsidiary – the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corp. – which will serve as the entity to enter into partnerships for these RAD projects. Rochelle Lento, a Dykema attorney who’s doing pro bono work for the housing commission, described it as a way to protect the AAHC from liabilities associated with entering a public/private partnership.

The five-member board will also be voting to select a co-developer and consultant for this effort, from a list of nine entities that responded to a recent request for proposals (RFP). Respondents included the local nonprofit Avalon Housing and a subsidiary of the construction firm JC Beal Construction.

The housing commission board is appointed by the Ann Arbor city council, but the council has a limited role in authorizing actions related to the RAD program. Current AAHC board members are Ron Woods, Marta Manildi, Gloria Black, Leigh Greden and Andy LaBarre.

However, at the end of the Nov. 14 meeting LaBarre announced his plans to resign from the commission. He noted that he’d recently been elected to the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, and needed to focus on what he’d been elected to do. LaBarre, a Democrat, won the District 7 seat on the county board in the Nov. 6 general election. It’s one of three districts that cover Ann Arbor. His two-year term begins in January of 2013. No nomination has yet been made for his replacement.

Ann Arbor Housing Commission: Background

The Ann Arbor housing commission manages two main programs: (1) public housing units in Ann Arbor; and (2) the Section 8 voucher program for Washtenaw, Monroe, and western Wayne counties.

For Section 8, over 1,400 vouchers are in use by tenants to subsidize rent in privately-owned properties. In addition, 37 vouchers are tied to specific projects: 20 for Avalon Housing’s Pear Street apartment complex; five for various other Avalon properties; and 12 for assisted living in units managed by Area Agency on Aging 1-B. There’s also one homeowner voucher, for an AAHC lease-to-own property.

The public housing units managed by AAHC are located throughout the city of Ann Arbor. AAHC units include Miller Manor, Baker Commons, North Maple Estates, Hikone and Hillside Manor, among several other properties. The inventory of 360 total units includes 30 single-bedroom units, 163 single-bedroom units for the elderly or disabled, 166 family units with 1-5 bedrooms, and one three-bedroom lease-to-own family unit.

Most of the AAHC housing stock was built in the 1960s and 1970s. AAHC’s most recent development – two duplexes on North Maple – was completed in 1998. Because of the aging structures, much of the cost associated with AAHC’s housing are related to maintenance. There are insufficient funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cover those costs, according to staff, so the AAHC sometimes seeks other funding sources for that work. For example, the commission recently asked the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority for a grant to replace the roof of Baker Commons, a 64-unit apartment complex at Main and Packard, in the DDA district. The DDA board awarded $260,000 toward that project at its October 2012 meeting.

Marta Manildi, a local attorney and member of the Ann Arbor housing commission board.

In addition to dealing with aging housing stock and decreased federal funding, the commission’s administration and board have gone through some dramatic changes in the past three years. In 2009, the city council approved a contract with Schumaker & Company for $117,040 to conduct a needs assessment for the commission, which resulted in recommendations that led to a major reorganization. [.pdf file of the Schumaker report] The changes were prompted by difficulties with personnel and staffing issues, as well as chronic HUD underfunding. [See Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor Housing Commission Reorganizes"]

In March of 2010, the city council voted to dissolve the AAHC board and appointed a new board. Only one member from the previous board – Marta Manildi, who had been appointed in the fall of 2009 – was reappointed. The new commission board then hired Marge Novak in May of 2010 as executive director. Novak had been serving as interim director for about 10 months, and stayed with AAHC until July of 2011, when she resigned to take a position with an affordable housing investment firm.

A subsequent search for yet another executive director led to the hiring of Jennifer L. Hall in October of 2011. Hall had previously served as housing and infrastructure manager at the joint Washtenaw County/city of Ann Arbor office of community development.

The current board members were also serving at that time, and had voted unanimously to approve Hall’s hiring. Board members are:

• Gloria Black – resident representative. (Appointed in July 2011 for a term ending May 4, 2015.)
• Leigh Greden – former Ann Arbor city councilmember and current executive director of government and community relations at Eastern Michigan University. (Appointed in January 2011. The length of his initial appointment was made in error through May 2, 2016, according to city council records. In April 2011 council passed another resolution changing the end of his term to April 30, 2013.)
• Andy LaBarre – former aide to Congressman John Dingell and current vice president of government relations and administration at the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce. (Appointed in August 2011 for a term ending Oct. 31, 2014. At the AAHC board’s Nov. 14 meeting, LaBarre announced his plans to resign from the board following his Nov. 6 election as a Washtenaw County commissioner.)
• Marta Manildi – attorney with Hooper, Hathaway, Price, Beuche & Wallace. (Appointed in June 2009 for a term ending May 5, 2014.)
• Ron Woods – EMU professor of Africology and African American studies. He is the current AAHC board president. His wife, Wendy Woods, is an Ann Arbor planning commissioner and former city councilmember. (Appointed in April 2010 through April 30, 2011. Reappointed in April 2011 through April 18, 2016.)

Since starting the job about a year ago, Hall has looked for ways to stabilize the organization and add to the city’s affordable housing stock. At her first AAHC board meeting in December of 2011, she proposed the possible acquisition of two properties and suggested building rental and rent-to-own units for low-income residents, with funding potentially coming from state and federal grants and loans. [See Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor Housing Commission to Expand?"]

Those deals did not go through, however. In one case the city was outbid, Hall told The Chronicle; in the other case, the property was not appraised at a price that the owner felt was high enough to sell.

Structural Change

The same goal of increasing the quantity and quality of the city’s low-income housing stock is also driving the current effort to restructure the AAHC, which has been in the works for months. It was mentioned during a presentation that Hall gave to the Ann Arbor city council at an Oct. 8, 2012 working session, and has been discussed at previous monthly AAHC board meetings.

Jennifer L. Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor housing commission.

The proposal aims to take advantage of HUD’s rental assistance demonstration program, known as RAD. The project is a mechanism to convert public housing units into public/private developments that in turn provide rental assistance through vouchers that are tied to those developments.

By way of background, public housing is supported with government funding – primarily at the federal level – and owned by local government entities. Another kind of government-subsidized housing – Section 8 vouchers – supports individuals who qualify based on their household income. Residents use those vouchers to help pay for private rental housing of their choice.

To a more limited degree, HUD also provides project-based vouchers. For example, the Ann Arbor housing commission has an allocation of 37 vouchers that are tied to specific projects, including 20 for Avalon Housing’s Pear Street apartment complex and 12 for assisted living in units managed by Area Agency on Aging 1-B.

The RAD program uses the project-based-voucher approach, but also allows entities like the AAHC to partner with private-sector developers on housing projects – something the AAHC currently can’t do. The approach allows public housing entities to tap private investment for new developments or rehab of existing public housing, by converting current public housing units into units that are owned by the public/private partnership.

Hall has estimated that Ann Arbor’s public housing stock would need about $40,000 per unit in repairs and renovations over the next 15 years. But based on current funding levels, HUD would provide only about $18,000 per unit over that period – or possibly less.

So Hall recommended that the AAHC apply to participate in the RAD program, with the hope of converting a large number of the current public housing complexes into public/private housing, and using private financing to help pay for improvements. Participation in the program would allow AAHC to access financing through low-income housing tax credits, FHA-backed private loans, Federal Home Loan Bank grants, and other sources.

The AAHC hopes to convert about 275 of its 360 public housing units under the RAD program. These are the properties being considered for the program, that were included in the RAD application:

• Baker Commons: 64 one-bedroom units
• Green Baxter Court: 24 townhomes with a total of 65 bedrooms
• Hikone: 30 townhomes with a total of 82 bedrooms
• Lower Platt: 4 houses, each with 5 bedrooms
• Miller Manor: 104 units with a total of 108 bedrooms
• Evelyn Court: one single-family home with three bedrooms
• Garden Circle: one single-family home with three bedrooms
• Maple Meadows: 30 townhomes with a total of 82 bedrooms
• North Maple Estates: 20 single-family homes with a total of 85 bedrooms
• North Maple duplexes: Two three-bedroom duplexes, for a total of 12 bedrooms

To help manage the conversions, the AAHC issued a request for proposals (RFP) this fall for a co-developer and consultant, with a deadline for submission of Nov. 7. [.pdf of the RFP for a co-developer and consultant]

Hall said she doesn’t have the staff to handle the paperwork and pursue funding sources for this RAD conversion, and a consultant would help with that. The co-developer would actually oversee the rehab of specific properties, and would be responsible for activities like hiring a construction team, conducting market and environmental analyses, and providing financial guarantees that are needed to secure certain types of financing.

City staff are reviewing the nine responses that were received, from the following entities: (1) Avalon Housing, (2) Recap Real Estate Advisors, (3) Union Capital Development, (4) Corporate Facts, (5) The Slavik Company & Premier Property Management, (6) Norstar Development, (7) Chesapeake Community, (8) Development Finance Association (JC Beal), and (9) MHT Housing Inc.

Structural Change: How the Conversion Would Work

To protect AAHC from liabilities associated with entering a public/private partnership, the commission plans to use an existing entity – the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corp. (AAHDC) – to handle these RAD projects. The AAHDC is a nonprofit subsidiary of the housing commission, but is essentially a shell organization at this point. It was formed in 1979 for the purpose of issuing bonds for Cranbrook Tower, a Section 8 complex off of Eisenhower with over 200 units. Cranbrook Tower is not owned by the city, but the commission was originally designated by HUD as the project’s public housing administrator. The housing commission currently receives $55,000 annually in that role.

Gloria Black, a member of the Ann Arbor housing commission who represents residents of public housing.

Now, the bonds for Cranbrook have been paid off and AAHDC is no longer needed for its original purpose. But because of Cranbrook’s original agreement with AAHDC, the commission receives $2,000 a month from the Cranbrook Tower Nonprofit Housing Corp. And those payments will continue to be made to AAHDC, Hall said. There is currently about $51,000 in a bank account for AAHDC, but the entity has no other assets and no governing board.

HUD now wants the housing commission’s administrative role in Cranbrook to be shifted to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), Hall said. That still needs to happen, and will remove the housing commission and AAHDC from any formal relationship with Cranbrook, other than the monthly payments that AAHDC receives.

At the board’s Nov. 14 meeting, commissioners were briefed on these issues, and were asked to approve amendments to the AAHDC bylaws and articles of incorporation – primarily making changes that more clearly define the housing commission’s relationship with AAHDC.

Rochelle Lento, an attorney with Dykema who is doing pro bono work for the housing commission, walked commissioners through the proposed changes. The intent is to use AAHDC as a buffer between the housing commission and whatever public/private partnerships are formed under the RAD program.

For each housing project, AAHDC and its private-sector partners would create yet another entity that would be used to secure funding – tax-credit financing, grants, loans and other sources. So the housing commission would have control over AAHDC, but would not be directly involved in these other entities, which will likely be set up as limited dividend housing association LLCs. As the name implies, this type of entity would exist for a limited period – typically 15 years – after which the property’s ownership would likely revert to the AAHDC as sole owner. However, it would be possible at that point to enter into a similar arrangement for another 15-year period – that’s typically how these deals work, Hall said.

Among other things, the changes in the AAHDC bylaws and articles of incorporation make the housing commission the sole member of the AAHDC. Lento described the changes as relatively minor, with the intent of setting up a structure for the kinds of partnerships that the housing commission wants to pursue. [.pdf of amended AAHDC bylaws] [.pdf of amended AAHDC articles of incorporation]

The changes also would remove mentions of HUD’s oversight role in the AAHDC, which had been related to the Cranbrook development. The approval by housing commissioners is contingent on HUD also accepting the amended bylaws and articles of incorporation, Lento explained. She added that she’d already talked to a HUD official – Sheila Walker, the agency’s chief legal counsel – who indicated that these changes would be acceptable. Lento said she knew Walker and considered her a mentor, and didn’t feel it would be a problem to move ahead with the proposed amendments.

Commissioners asked a few clarificational questions, but there was little discussion about the proposed amendments.

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously approved the proposed amendments to the bylaws and articles of incorporation for the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corp. Leigh Greden was absent.

Next Steps

The housing commission board will be asked to make additional decisions in the coming months related to this transition. A committee that’s reviewing responses to the RFP for a co-developer and consultant will be making a recommendation to the board, possibly at its Dec. 17 meeting. The review committee includes AAHC executive director Jennifer L. Hall, AAHC board president Ron Woods, and Kevin McDonald, senior assistant city attorney.

Ron Woods, president of the Ann Arbor housing commission.

After HUD signs off on the changes to the bylaws and articles of incorporation for the AAHDC subsidiary, the housing commission board will need to appoint a board of directors with three to seven members. The members of the AAHDC board could simply be the same as the housing commission board, Hall said – that’s up to the AAHC board members. She recommended that there be at least some overlap of board members on the two entities, to ensure communication and accountability. There will also be a memorandum of understanding prepared between the housing commission and AAHDC, setting out details about that relationship. That document would require board approval, too.

Public meetings will be held with residents to talk about the changes, though Hall said that residents wouldn’t likely notice a difference, until renovations get underway. Residents will not see their rent subsidies change as a result of this process, she said.

If the AAHC properties are accepted into the RAD program, there will also be a range of other actions that require board authorization, including the use of AAHC reserves or capital grants – possibly up to $100,000 – for gap financing, which would likely be paid back after permanent financing for these capital improvement projects is secured. In a follow-up phone interview, Hall told The Chronicle that the AAHC board already approved setting aside $100,000 of the commission’s roughly $1.5 million in reserves to use for “pre-development” activities.

The city council’s role in approving the deals is not completely clear. At the Oct. 8 city council work session about the housing commission, Ward 3 councilmember Stephen Kunselman reacted to Hall’s sketch of the RAD proposal by indicating he was not inclined to support the selling off of Ann Arbor’s public housing stock. The uncertainty of the council’s role is due to uncertainty about the ownership status of the city’s public housing, according to Hall. Until recently, it’s been assumed that the city of Ann Arbor owns the properties, in which case the city council would need to authorize any kind of ownership transfer. But HUD has indicated that it believes the properties are owned by AAHC, she said. Hall and city legal staff are working with HUD to sort out this issue, which would need to be resolved before any of these deals move forward.

The meetings of the AAHC board are typically on the third Wednesday of each month, starting at 6 p.m. and held at different public housing locations throughout Ann Arbor. The meetings are open to the public but are not videotaped or broadcast on Community Television Network. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at North Maple Estates, 733 North Maple.

Transition of Commissioners

At the end of AAHC’s Nov. 14 meeting, Andy LaBarre announced his plans to resign from the five-member board. He noted that he’d recently been elected to the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, and needed to focus on what he’d been elected to do. He said he had enjoyed serving on the housing commission.

Andy LaBarre announced his intent to resign from the Ann Arbor housing commission board at its Nov. 14 meeting.

LaBarre, a Democrat, won the District 7 seat on the county board in the Nov. 6 general election. It’s one of three districts that cover Ann Arbor on the 9-member county board. His two-year term begins in January of 2013. He also is vice president of government relations and administration at the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Marta Manildi, the longest-serving current member of the housing commission board, told LaBarre that he had been a “very temperate and insightful colleague.” The county will benefit from his work on that board of commissioners, she said.

The housing commission board is appointed by the Ann Arbor city council, which confirms nominations made by the mayor. Jennifer L. Hall, the commission’s executive director, indicated to The Chronicle that Leigh Greden, a former city councilmember, was recruiting potential nominations. He did not attend the Nov. 14 meeting.

No nomination to replace LaBarre has yet been put forward by mayor John Hieftje. The city council meets only once more in 2012 – on Dec. 17. Typically, the nomination and confirmation occur at two separate meetings.

The Chronicle could not survive without regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of public bodies like the Ann Arbor housing commission. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

The budget committee saw no changes from last year: Mike Anglin, Sabra Briere, Marcia Higgins, Jane Lumm, and Christopher Taylor.

Added to the audit committee to replace Sandi Smith and Carsten Hohnke, as well as Sabra Briere, were Chuck Warpehoski, Sumi Kailasapathy, and Sally Petersen. Other members of the audit committee are Stephen Kunselman and Margie Teall.

Added to the council administration committee to replace Tony Derezinski was Sally Petersen. Other members of that committee are Marcia Higgins, Margie Teall, Christopher Taylor, and John Hieftje.

Added to the labor committee to replace Sandi Smith was Stephen Kunselman. Other members of that committee are John Hieftje, Jane Lumm, Marcia Higgins and Margie Teall.

Added to the council rules committee to replace Sandi Smith was John Hieftje. Other members of that committee are Sabra Briere, Marcia Higgins, Stephen Kunselman, and Christopher Taylor.

Tony Derezinski had served as the council appointee to the city planning commission, a responsibility that will now be taken over by Sabra Briere.

Jane Lumm became the council’s appointee to the insurance board of review, replacing Derezinski. Lumm will also fill the position of liquor license hearing officer. Taking Derezinski’s spot on the liquor license review board will be Sumi Kailasapathy.

Sandi Smith’s slot on the housing and human services advisory board will be filled by Sabra Briere. That body has been tasked by the council – through a resolution passed at the council’s Nov. 19, 2012 meeting – to provide a recommendation on the city’s living wage ordinance. The council considered, but postponed until February 2013, a change to the living wage that would exempt nonprofits that contract with the city to provide human services.

Chuck Warpehoski replaces Carsten Hohnke on the environmental commission, while Christopher Taylor replaces Hohnke on the greenbelt advisory commission. [Google Spreadsheet with 2012 and 2013 committee appointments]

At its Dec. 3 meeting, the council also adopted its rules and meeting calendar for the coming year. The meeting schedule adhered to the same pattern: first and third Mondays of the month, except for holidays, when the meeting is held on Tuesdays. And when an election is held on a Tuesday after first Monday of the month, that meeting is moved to Thursday.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The task force was established by the city council at its May 7, 2012 meeting, with membership to include the following: one member of the park advisory commission, one member of the planning commission, one resident representing the Water Hill neighborhood, one resident representing the North Central neighborhood, one resident from the Old Fourth Ward, one resident representing the Broadway/Pontiac neighborhood, two business and property owners from the affected area, and one member of the Huron River Watershed Council.

At its May 21 meeting, the two sponsors of the resolution that created the task force – Ward 1 councilmembers Sabra Briere and Sandi Smith – proposed adding three additional representatives: a member of the city council, someone from the boating/fishing community of river users, a representative from the Huron River Citizens Association. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), who also serves on AAPAC, then proposed an amendment to add an AAPAC member to the task force. The AAPAC addition was passed by council on a 6-5 vote. [See Chronicle coverage: "Positions Added to North Main Task Force"] Appointments are expected to be made at the council’s June 4 meeting.

At AAPAC’s May 23 meeting, Derezinski told commissioners that “basically, we need someone at the table.”

The task force is charged with delivering a report to the city council more than a year from now – by July 31, 2013 – that describes “a vision to create/complete/enhance pedestrian and bike connection from downtown to Bandemer and Huron River Drive, increase public access to the river-side amenities of existing parks in the North Main-Huron River corridor, ease traffic congestion at Main and Depot at certain times of a day and recommend use of MichCon property at Broadway; …”

Earlier than that – by the end of 2012 – the task force is to make recommendations on the use of the city-owned 721 N. Main parcel.

Brown has served on AAPAC since early 2009, and has chaired the commission’s projects committee. She is a principal of Rizzolo Brown Studio, an Ann Arbor architecture firm.

This brief was filed from the basement conference room of city hall at 301 E. Huron, where AAPAC held its meeting. A more detailed report will follow.

The member from AAPAC was added by a 6-5 vote that amended the original resolution. Voting for the additional member were Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Margie Teall (Ward 4), Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), Mike Anglin (Ward 5), and mayor John Hiefjte.

When the task force was established at the council’s May 7, 2012 meeting, the membership had included the following: one member of the park advisory commission, one member of the planning commission, one resident representing the Water Hill neighborhood, one resident representing the North Central neighborhood, one resident from the Old Fourth Ward, one resident representing the Broadway/Pontiac neighborhood, two business and property owners from the affected area, and one member of the Huron River Watershed Council.

The appointment of actual members to the task force has not yet been made. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) indicated that the complete set of names might be expected by the council’s June 4 meeting.

The task force is charged with delivering a report to the city council more than a year from now – by July 31, 2013 – that describes “a vision to create/complete/enhance pedestrian and bike connection from downtown to Bandemer and Huron River Drive, increase public access to the river-side amenities of existing parks in the North Main-Huron River corridor, ease traffic congestion at Main and Depot at certain times of a day and recommend use of MichCon property at Broadway; …”

Earlier than that – by the end of 2012 – the task force is to make recommendations on the use of the city-owned 721 N. Main parcel.

The creation of the task force comes in the context of the city’s application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for funds to demolish two former maintenance yard buildings on the city-owned 721 N. Main parcel. The application has been approved by FEMA, but is pending the update of the city’s All-Hazard plan, which had expired and is being updated. FEMA is willing to help fund the demolition, because the two buildings are located in the floodway. The city council’s eventual acceptance of the FEMA grant will require a deed restriction on development in the floodway portion of the parcel.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The greenbelt advisory commission is one of the few boards and commissions for which the nominations to serve come from the city council as a body, not from the mayor. The item had been on the council’s agenda at its May 7 meeting – but only inadvertently. It had been intended only as a communication item. The council voted to postpone consideration of the reappointment until the May 21 meeting.

The commission’s membership is defined in terms of qualifications in different categories. Allen fills the slot on the commission designated for a real estate developer. Riseng fills a slot designated for a plant or animal biologist. According to her University of Michigan faculty profile, Riseng is an “aquatic ecologist with specific focus on fluvial ecosystems and benthic invertebrate ecology.”

The complete slate of membership positions include the following: two members to serve as representatives of environmental or conservation groups; one member who is an agricultural landowner or operates an agricultural business; one member who is a real estate development professional; one member who is a plant or animal professional; one member who is a plant or animal biologist; three members from the public-at-large; one member of the Ann Arbor city council.

The city council representative to the greenbelt advisory commission is Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5).

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Marsha Chamberlin and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) before the start of the Ann Arbor city council's Dec. 5 meeting. Chamberlin is chair of the Ann Arbor public art commission. (Photos by the writer.)

At its Nov. 21 meeting, the council had given initial approval to ordinance revisions that included temporarily reducing the required 1% allocation to public art from all city capital improvement projects, dropping the amount to 0.5% for the period from 2012 to 2015. Neither that provision, nor one that would have required allocated funds to be spent on public art within a specific period of time, survived a final vote. What did survive was a prohibition against using general fund dollars for public art projects, as well as an exclusion of sidewalk repair from the definition of projects triggering the public art requirement.

Councilmembers who had previously argued for the temporary reduction, but changed their positions after intense lobbying by the arts community – both privately and at the lengthy public hearing – included Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) and mayor John Hieftje. All face possible re-election campaigns in 2012. Questions about the legal foundation of Ann Arbor’s public art program, which taps utility fees and dedicated millage funds to pay for public art, were raised again at the meeting by Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

In other significant business, the council gave final approval to an expansion of the area around Ann Arbor that is eligible for protection using funds from the voter-approved greenbelt millage.

The council also approved its side of a deal to contract out Ann Arbor police dispatching services to the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office – at an annual cost of $759,089. The city expects eventually to save $500,000 a year with the move, which will entail laying off all of the city’s current dispatchers, not all of whom would be able to obtain employment within the expanded sheriff’s office dispatch operation.

The council also formally tabled a proposed ordinance that would have provided residents with the ability to forbid the delivery of newspapers to their property – by posting a notice on their front doors. The city’s code already prohibits depositing newspapers onto sidewalks.

A sidewalk along Dexter Avenue, east of Maple Road, was the subject of a special tax authorized by the council to be applied to property owners there. The city will use the funds to construct a continuous sidewalk along that stretch, and make curb and gutter improvements.

The council took care of several housekeeping issues, including approving its set of rules for the coming year and making its committee appointments. Those included the appointment of Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) as the council representative to the board of the local development finance authority – replacing Stephen Rapundalo, who was defeated by Jane Lumm (Ward 2) in the Nov. 8 election. But Rapundalo was appointed as a citizen representative to the board and will thus continue to serve on that body. Council committee appointments were only slightly shuffled, because Lumm was assigned to a number of spots Rapundalo had previously filled.

At the end of the meeting, Hieftje announced a nomination to replace Sue McCormick on the board of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority – Eli Cooper. Cooper has previously served on the AATA board and is the city’s transportation program manager.

Highlights during public commentary included advocacy for a 24/7 warming shelter to be staffed by volunteers from the community, and support for 14-year Ann Arbor resident Lourdes Salazar Bautista, who faces deportation later this month.

Public Art Program

The council considered final approval of a revision to its public art ordinance that would temporarily reduce the amount allocated from all capital project budgets to public art from 1% to 0.5%. The city has a law – enacted in 2007 – that requires 1% of all capital project budgets to include 1% for public art, with a limit of $250,000 per project. At its Nov. 21 meeting, the council had given initial approval to the reduction, as well as other ordinance amendments.

The initially approved reduction applied for just the next three years, from fiscal year 2012 to 2015. That three-year timeframe was also a key part of a sunsetting amendment to the public art ordinance. The sunsetting amendment would have required that future funds reserved for public art under the ordinance be encumbered within three years. Money that was unspent or unencumbered after three years would have been required to return to its fund of origin. The language of the amendment would have made it possible for the council to extend the deadline for successive periods, each extension for no more than six months.

Councilmembers Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

The sunsetting clause had been proposed in response to criticism about the pace at which public art has been acquired. More than $500,000 has accumulated for public art over the last five years just from projects funded with the street repair tax – money that has yet to be spent on the acquisition of public art. Critics of the program also point to legal issues connected with the use of dedicated millage funds or fee-based utility funds for public art.

Two other amendments – that did receive final approval by the council on Monday – included a definition of capital improvement projects that excludes sidewalk repair from the ordinance requirement. Voters on Nov. 8 approved a new 0.125 mill tax that is supposed to allow the city to take over responsibility for the repair of sidewalks. Previously, sidewalk repair was paid for by adjacent property owners.

The amendments before the council for final consideration also excluded the public art ordinance from applying to any capital projects funded out of the general fund. Such projects are rare. [Additional Chronicle coverage: "Council Preview: Public Art Ordinance"]

Public Art Program: Public Hearing

As with all changes to city ordinances, a public hearing was held before the council took its second vote on the public art ordinance amendments. Most but not all spoke against the idea of reducing the 1% funding. The public hearing included many of the same personalities who have previously addressed the council on the topic. Here are some highlights.

Thomas Partridge, noted that his deceased mother was an artist, so it was only reluctantly that he was asking that the ordinance be amended to cut funding. The program had been so fully funded that it had enticed the mayor and council to a lapse in judgement that had led them to purchase a $750,000 object [the Dreiseitl fountain] that looks like it came out of a junkyard, he said.

Brenda Oelbaum told the council that her mother is on life support in Toronto and she’d traveled back to Ann Arbor because she felt that public art is on life support. She contended that the talk of Ann Arbor in a financial crisis is exaggerated, citing as evidence the fact that she’d gone to dinner on Thursday and waited for an hour in a place that wasn’t cheap. Where’s the recession? she asked. Ypsilanti and Detroit are suffering, but Ann Arbor, she claimed, is not suffering.

Cheryl Elliot, president and CEO of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, spoke in support of the public art program, calling art the “gift that keeps on giving.”

Alan Haber encouraged the council to maintain the full amount of funding. He suggested bringing art from Ann Arbor’s sister cities around the world and displaying it in an art exchange.

Paul Hickman introduced himself as the owner of the home furnishing company Urban Ashes. He told the council he felt that something was being critically missed in the conversation. He asked how many people in the room had had a mentor – several people raised their hands. He said that his bridge from school to work was working with a professor doing public art in 1999-2000, which was funded through Arizona’s Percent for Art program. That bridge connected him to the trades and techniques of public art and took him into a career, he said. It’s allowed him to be able to do what he really loves to do, he said.

If councilmembers had not heard of Urban Ashes, Hickman told them, they would eventually hear about it. Six years ago he and his 5-year-old son had started working with disadvantaged kids in Brighton. The benefit of public art goes beyond the visual impact on the community, he said. Art is a profession, and it’s taught him an incredible way to give back to the community.

Shoshana Hurand, one of the organizers of FestiFools, expressed her support for the public art program, saying it makes economic sense.

Margaret Parker and Marsha Chamberlin, who both serve on the public art commission, spoke in support of maintaining the funding the same way it had been previously mandated. Parker said that cutting the percentage from 1% to 0.5% brings no new revenue to the city. She insisted that the amounts the council was discussing were “pennies.” Parker said the reason that so little art had been created up to now was that not enough money had been allocated for administering the program.

Chamberlin told the council that Ann Arbor is not a sleepy college town. She acknowledged that public art is well funded, judging by the amount that had been generated to date. The volunteer commission had started the ball rolling, she said. It sets a bad example to reduce the funding, she said. Having a three-year deadline for encumbering funds with the council extension is understandable, she said, but not a reduction from 1% to 0.5%.

Odile Hugenot Haber lamented the fact that funding for art is now pitted against social services.

Alexandra Hoffman introduced herself as a University of Michigan PhD student. She’s working with the group trying to establish a warming center. She told the council her group is not against public art folks, but invited the council to come help at the warming center.

Nancy Kaplan told the council she appreciated the effort they’d made to amend the ordinance. She said she also appreciated the hard work of the public art commission. She allowed that everyone appreciates public art, but said that the debate is not about art itself, but rather the method of funding. She called for a fresh start, with a public vote on public art. She told the council they should put a vote for art on the November 2012 ballot. That would provide a clarity for the funding source, she said, clarity on the amount so that it could be counted on, clarity on the duration of the program and clarity on the design – the design of a piece of art could be untied from the purpose of a particular funding source.

Kaplan said that currently the art fund is flush, and the temporary funding reduction would give the commission a chance to “catch up.” Kaplan told the council that it’s the funding mechanism that is tying the community in knots.

Public Art Program: Council Deliberations

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) led off deliberations by saying that after the council’s last meeting, she had a chance to look at the amendments to which the council had given their initial approval and to think over the implications of the changes for funding and policy. She said she was terrifically impressed with the passion expressed by the public in support of art. For her part, she said what they’re really talking about is the funding mechanism – not particular activities like FestiFools or the art fairs. The council is talking about funding mechanisms and priorities, she said. When the council established the ordinance, it had not clarified what it meant by “capital improvement” and didn’t look 3-4 years into the future to see what kind of funds would accumulate.

If the revision passed, it would allow the public art commission to take a breather and look at how it’s going to implement policies it has established – without amassing as much funding as the program has in the past three years. As proposed, the funding would automatically revert from 0.5% back to 1%, she said. The ordinance also doesn’t affect the fund balance that’s already there – it addresses only funding alloted for public art after July 1, 2012. She characterized it as a very narrow ordinance.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) reflected on the lively discussion at the previous council meeting, saying that it had added to the discourse on the issue. She agreed with Briere’s emphasis on the funding source. In response to those who questioned where funding for new projects could come from if the funding were reduced, Lumm suggested partnerships with the private sector.

Councilmembers Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) and Jane Lumm (Ward 2) before the start of the Dec. 5 meeting.

Lumm said she’d support the temporary reduction to 0.5%. Lumm responded to the rhetorical tactic from Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) and Margie Teall (Ward 4) at the last council meeting, when they’d said you can’t claim to support public art at the same time you reduce funding. She agreed with the remarks of Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) from the previous meeting, who’d noted that the council had also said it supported public safety at the same time the council reduced funding for it. Lumm said that’s a black-and-white view of things that is not appropriate. Taxpayers expect adjustments, she said. It comes down to tradeoffs and difficult choices, and she called on the council to get away from emotional demagoguery. A vote to temporarily reduce funding of public art doesn’t mean someone is anti-public art, she said. Lumm said she’d see things differently if the earmark for public art were based on a vote of residents.

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) said it’s important to provide an amount that’s sufficient for the program  to be successful.

Objecting to Lumm’s allusion to public safety, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) felt that conversations about public safety don’t have a place in this context. Bringing up public safety clouds the issue and misleads listeners, he contended. It’s capital money that is set aside – it can’t be used for public safety operations. He said he strived to find with this, as with other issues, some measure of balance. When the council had first considered the issue, he said, he was conflicted about reducing the funding temporarily to 0.5%.

The metaphor Taylor had introduced at the last meeting was one of pruning a plant. Taylor said it’s a useful metaphor, but he’d begun to doubt it’s applicability. What benefit would accrue to the program? he asked. He had yet to hear of a capital project that couldn’t be put forward, due to the public art program. He felt the program would benefit from an increased focus on staffing and administration, but had come to doubt that the temporary reduction would be useful.

Because Taylor did not feel the reduction would be useful, he said he would be proposing two amendments – to eliminate the temporary reduction in funding, and to eliminate the requirement that the money either be encumbered within three years, or else returned to its fund of origin.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) agreed with Taylor and said that Taylor’s remarks had encapsulated a lot of his own thinking. It would be a step backward, said Derezinski, who also serves on the public art commission. What kind of signal would it send? He said he was in favor of keeping the funding level at 1%. He suggested that an administrative solution needed to be found.

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) said she’d twice supported the reduction of funding for the public art program. [At the council's Dec. 21, 2009 meeting and at the council's May 31, 2011 session, she'd voted for a reduction in funding.] Smith said she felt she’d been pretty consistent with the way she carries votes forward. The more she reflected on why she felt the way she did about the art program, the more she thought it might be because of a lack of more obvious progress.

The more Smith read about how to turn a place around and the reasons why people are drawn to a place, the more she wondered if reducing the funding was the right move. An epiphany came to her, she said, when crunching through the numbers and seeing the funding levels for the next three years for 1%, 0.5% and 0.25%. The difference between them, she said, is about “a buck and a quarter” per resident.

In talking about proposing an amendment, Smith said, Taylor had beaten her to the punch.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) said he supported the amendment, because maintaining funding at 1% is the right thing to do. He weighed in against executing a strategy to do everything at absolute minimum cost. He noted that Lumm had pointed out that having a conversation about the amount of funding shouldn’t be taken as support for art or not – up to a point. He said if someone were to suggest supporting 1/1000th of a percent, then that would not count as support for the art. Hohnke said he wanted Ann Arbor to be among the cohort of communities that leads.

Margie Teall (Ward 4) said she appreciated what had been said. As far as freeing up funds by reducing the percentage, she said, she didn’t know what the funds would be freed up for. It isn’t about art appreciation, she said. Ann Arbor has wonderful art fairs and people claim Ann Arbor is an artistic Mecca, but the city doesn’t really support art at all, she claimed. The Percent for Art ordinance is the mechanism to support public art, she said.

Councilmembers Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) and Marcia Higgins (Ward 4).

People had described some great ideas about what the city could do with the arts funding, Teall said, but the city wouldn’t achieve any of the great ideas if the funding were cut.

With Smith and Taylor dropping their support, Briere appeared to understand that she’d likely lose the vote. She noted that her colleagues would remember that she didn’t propose the temporary drop in funding to 0.5%, but that she’d brought forward the resolution at the request of other councilmembers. [Her original proposal had been to leave the funding level at 1% but to exclude projects funded with the street repair millage.]

Briere indicated she appreciated the desire to return to 1%. The reason she could not support it, she said, is because the council had been engaged in “this dance” for three years. The council talked about it, but then backed away.

There’s absolutely no denying that art is important, Briere said. She reflected on the fact that it’s possible for the council to have a three-hour discussion that has little impact on individual budgets. Briere alluded to the council’s 45-minute debate in May 2009 on a $7,000 item for Project Grow funding. Using Smith’s analogy, that’s 6 cents per resident, she said. The council had recently approved a $25,000 appropriation for the Delonis Center warming center – that’s 22 cents a person, she said.

Over the next three years, the reduction from 1% to 0.5% takes funding from around $900,000 per year to almost $450,000, Briere said. She said she was hard-pressed to believe it would cripple a program that currently has around $1.5 million to spend. And if it were to cripple that program, we’d know it, she said, because the council would hear about it. She stressed that it’s a temporary three-year cutback. She did not think the temporary reduction would prevent someone from settling in Ann Arbor or expanding their business here. People come to places where there are jobs and housing, with well-maintained streets, she said – to places that take pride not just in art, but also in infrastructure.

This is the third time the issue has come back to the council, Briere said, and she felt that fact represents a real dissatisfaction with something about the program. She again stressed that she’d brought it forward at the request of other members on the council. If the council does not act, she said, councilmembers would face the same situation again in a year.

Lumm noted that the difference between the roughly $900,000 that 1% would generate and the $450,000 that 0.5% would generate was significant. The issue has to do with funding priorities, she said.

Taylor had voted for the reduction from 1% to 0.5% at the council’s first reading, in the same way he’d voted for the reduction at the first reading in 2009. He allowed that Briere raised a good point about the persistence of the council’s conversation. It’s one about which he was torn. The past two weeks had been illuminating for clarifying his thoughts.

Teall noted that permanent public art is costly, if it’s constructed as a life-long legacy to stand the test of time. The program doesn’t have an administrator, she said, and it’s a young program. [The city's current public art administrator, Aaron Seagraves, started the job in May. It's a part-time position.] To “cut it off at its knees” is a mistake, Teall said. Reducing it would be a rollback at a time when the city is trying to institute things that don’t come to fruition in a short time.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) expressed some frustration, saying that as she listened to the debate, people always want to tie it to being for or against public art. The discussion is really about how to fund it. Higgins said that Marsha Chamberlin, chair of the public art commission, brought up a great point during public commentary when she’d said that the program has a lot of money right now, but nothing guarantees it in future years. If we want this place to be a Mecca for art, Higgins said, then let’s figure out how to fund it. The council was dancing around the question.

Higgins talked about the need for the art commission to know how much money it would have and for how long. She wondered if $400,000 for the next 30 years, funded by a millage, would be one way to go. She noted that people say they don’t want general fund dollars to go towards public art, but she wondered how administrative support is paid for.

Higgins said she’d like to see the resolution tabled for four to five months so that the council could have a serious conversation about it. On the issue of the general fund, she wondered if some money for art shouldn’t come from the general fund. If it’s a priority for the community, she asked, why not?

Hohnke allowed that the dollar amount generated is significant over the next three years, whether the percentage is 1% or 0.5%. The elegance of the program, based on a percentage, is that it’s a reflection of the investments made in the built environment. The program provides resources relative to the investment in the built environment, he said.

Mayor John Hieftje said people had made many good points. One of the points is that there are strings attached to the way public art money is spent, and he supported loosening the strings to the extent it’s legally possible. If there is any general fund money in the public art fund, he said, it’s not enough to make it an issue of public safety. The question is whether to fund art.

Hieftje noted that Ann Arbor’s water and sewer rates are some of the lowest in the state. He assured people that they’d see some aggressive spending of street millage funds next year – the city had been holding them back as a contingency to help pay for the Stadium bridges replacement project. Hieftje revealed that he was a sponsor of the resolution to reduce the funding from 1% to 0.5% at one point. But in looking at public art as economic development and reflecting on that, he found that 1%, up to the $250,000 limit per project, is okay. He found himself in favor of the amendment to keep funding at 1%.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) complained that the legality of the transfer from the street fund to art had never been explained in a written opinion from the city attorney. Alluding to Hieftje’s mention of “strings,” he said if the council is going to talk about strings, the strings should be written down.

Describing a millage pitched by Tuscola County to its voters, Kunselman said Tuscola County assured voters that there could be no transfer of special millage funds to another account. That’s what Tuscola County says, so what do we say, Kunselman wondered. He suggested the new city administrator ask for a written opinion from the city attorney. Then there could be certainty, he said.

Kunselman liked the idea of an art millage. Not acting meant punting it down the road to a future council in a way that could end up in a lawsuit, he said. Ann Arbor is the only city in Michigan that has a Percent for Art ordinance, Kunselman said, and the city doesn’t even have it written down why it’s legal.

Outcome on amendment restoring the 1% level of funding: The council voted to eliminate the original amendment, thus restoring the funding level to 1%. Dissenting were Lumm, Kunselman and Briere.

Taylor then went on to propose eliminating another amendment, already given initial approval, that money be returned to its fund of origin if not encumbered within three years. He said he’d initially thought it was a reasonable way to incentivize spending money with deliberate haste. He felt there were complications with the provision, despite the fail-safe that allowed the city council to extend the three-year deadline for funds in six-month increments.

Teall thanked Taylor for bringing forward the amendment. She feared the original proposal would have the effect of rushing the public art commission into spending money.

Briere noted that any time you talk about deadlines, there’s a valid concern it would result in hasty, ill-considered decisions. Responding to the issue of money in some funds accruing slowly, she noted that money is pooled and could be put together with other funds. Briere noted that the idea of placing a temporal deadline had come from public services area administrator Sue McCormick, who oversees the public art program. Briere said that placing a finite deadline on the accrual of funds would help focus attention. The idea is not to rush to judgment, she said. It’s to focus attention. It allows the city to keep better track of things.

Councilmember Sandi Smith (Ward 1) and Margaret Parker, a member of the public art commission.

Higgins said she wouldn’t support Taylor’s amendment, pointing out that she’d heard Marsha Chamberlin say at the podium that the three-year period is reasonable. Higgins also noted that it’s not just one six-month period of extension – it’s an indefinite number of six-month extensions that are available. It’s an easy check and balance.

Smith noted that one of the things that affects her thinking about the public art ordinance is that there’s at this point very little public art to see. The original change that the council approved may help push projects along, so she was not in favor of reversing it. It’s important to have some sense of urgency, she said.

Derezinski said he’d proposed and voted for the amendment that allowed the council to grant an extension because it made the overall proposition less bad. He said it related to the issue of process and how the public art commission operates. If the commission had the right staff, he felt, it would be possible to address the issue through the procedures of the commission. Writing a requirement into the ordinance is using “too large a club,” he said.

Lumm said that the three-year provision did not amount to a hardship. She called it simply a very good discipline and said she wouldn’t support Taylor’s amendment.

Outcome on amendment removing requirement that funds be encumbered within three years: The amendment passed on a 6-5 vote, with approval from Derezinski, Taylor, Teall, Hohnke, Anglin and Hieftje.

Public services area administrator Sue McCormick was asked how the administration for public art would be charged. She described it as analogous to the way that engineering projects are charged to the project management group at the city.

In her concluding remarks, Briere noted that other communities with Percent for Art programs restrict the money in some way. When the Ann Arbor city council had originally passed its ordinance, it had not restricted the money. That made it problematic to manage. She hoped her colleagues would allow some restrictions going forward by passing the resolution as amended. [The surviving changes included the prohibition on using money from the general fund and the definition of capital improvement projects to exclude sidewalk repair.]

Lumm expressed frustration, commenting: “This thing is really watered down!” [Briere subsequently told The Chronicle that she'd gotten out of it what she'd wanted – an agreement to restrict the funds in some way.] Lumm said she’d started paying attention to it when Higgins had proposed a budget amendment in May of that year. Now, Lumm said, she wasn’t sure what to do.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the two changes to the public art ordinance.

City-County Consolidated Dispatch

On the agenda was a resolution for a $759,089 annual contract with the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office to handle police dispatch operations for the city of Ann Arbor. The five-year agreement is anticipated to start in March of 2012.

According to the staff memo accompanying the council’s resolution, the city of Ann Arbor expects to realize at least $500,000 in savings annually compared to continuing to employ its own dispatchers. The cost savings arise from the fact that not all of the city’s current dispatchers would be hired on by the sheriff’s office – the total number of dispatchers in the consolidated operation would be reduced by six FTEs, compared to the two separate operations.

In the separate but co-located dispatch operation currently in place, at any given time, one Law Enforcement Information Network support officer is used for each operation – one for the Ann Arbor police department and one for the Washtenaw County sheriff's office.

In more detail, the city’s dispatch operation is currently authorized for 19 dispatching positions, and the county has 17 positions. The combined operation is proposed to employ 30 full-time dispatchers. It also calls for 10 part-time dispatchers.

A significant reduction in the FTE number (5.25 positions) is achieved in the consolidated operation by using just one LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network) officer, instead of using one LEIN officer for each dispatch operation (for a total of two) at any given time.

The way these efficiencies were gained was laid out at the council’s Dec. 5 meeting, as they had been at a work session in September, by Kerry Laycock, a management consultant hired to help with the consolidation. [Laycock has been tapped for assistance on many of the city's reorganizational moves over the last several years, including most recently the Ann Arbor housing commission.]

Of the 19 budgeted city positions, one dispatcher retired this fall, leaving current staffing at 18. Two dispatchers are currently on approved leave. As a result of the consolidation, 4-5 Ann Arbor dispatchers who currently have full-time positions would not have a full-time job under the consolidated operation.

In addition to the cost savings that accrue from employing fewer people overall, it emerged during council deliberations that the difference in compensation between city and county dispatchers averages around $9,000 per year – Ann Arbor city dispatchers earn more. That can translate into around a 20% pay cut for Ann Arbor city dispatchers, who earned $44,000-$56,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

The contract with the county for dispatch services is offset by a $12,520 facility use fee paid by the county to the city. The Washtenaw County sheriff’s office is already co-located with Ann Arbor police dispatch, in a facility above the city’s Fire Station #1 on South Fifth Avenue just across the street from the municipal center. The sheriff’s office also currently handles dispatching services for Northfield Township, Michigan State Police, Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority and the city of Ypsilanti. [Additional Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor, Washtenaw: Joint 911 Dispatch?"]

According to the staff memo accompanying the council’s resolution, the consolidation of dispatch operations would help qualify the city for the state of Michigan’s Economic Vitality Incentive Plan. The MEVIP has replaced statutory state-shared revenue as the means that the state legislature uses to distribute to local governmental units their portion of the state’s sales tax. The distribution of a portion of the state sales tax to local units is based on the fact that in Michigan, local units have limited ability to generate revenue through taxes.

Consolidated Dispatch: Public Commentary

Anne Daws-Lazar told the council she was a life-long Ann Arbor resident and that she’d worked 24 years as a dispatcher and would be retiring in February 2012. She characterized the proposed move not as a merger but as a “takeover.” She questioned the ability to take more calls with fewer people. She noted that currently the two operations are co-located. Before co-location, she said, Ann Arbor dispatchers answered more than 48,000 911 calls. After co-location, she said (adding the county sheriff’s operation) Ann Arbor dispatchers answered 85,000 calls. That’s because Ann Arbor dispatchers are answering Washtenaw County calls. [In the dispatching operation, there are two distinct functions performed by separate people – a call-taking function and a dispatching function.] So the Ann Arbor dispatching staff is already assisting with the Washtenaw County workload, Daws-Lazar concluded.

Ann Arbor dispatchers have more experience than county dispatchers, she said. Of the current 16 Ann Arbor dispatchers, nine have over 10 years of experience, and nobody has less than six years of experience. On the county side, she said, six out of 14 have less than four years experience. She accounted for the reduced experience on the county’s side by pointing to the conditions they work under and their treatment by their administration. She said she felt that very few people will be transitioned – Ann Arbor dispatchers will have to apply for a job. She felt very few Ann Arbor dispatchers will actually do that, because they’ve seen firsthand the conditions that the county dispatchers work under, which in turn will lead to a less-experienced dispatching staff.

Among the conditions the county dispatchers work under, Daws-Lazar pointed to a difference in their contracts – Ann Arbor dispatchers aren’t allowed to work 16 hours, unless it’s an extreme emergency. But county dispatchers work 16-hour days regularly, she contended. And they do that often two to three days in a row. That comes at a price, she said, including officer safety.

Danyelle Tucker introduced herself as a current employee at the dispatch center. In June of this year, she contended, all 18 dispatchers had been sent letters saying they would be laid off due to a lack of funding. She alluded to an alternative proposal, that would create revenue for the city instead of costing the city $759,000 per year, including the loss of PSAP (public safety answering point) funds totaling over $600,000 per year.

She contended that during a May 11, 2011 meeting of a the county-city collaboration task force, attended by assistant city attorney Nancy Niemela, city of Ann Arbor CFO Tom Crawford, and deputy police chief Greg Bazick, they discussed the best avenue for getting around a full city council vote. As members of the city council, she said, they should question why secrecy would be needed, if it were the best plan for the city. Why would Bazick raise the possibility of the consolidation process to be stopped by an injunction? she asked. She said there was a reason why the police department administration did not want the council to see the alternative proposal.

Tucker also expressed concern for citizens of Ann Arbor who are accustomed to a certain level of service from a dispatch center. Under the proposal, she said, citizens would be relying on Washtenaw County to maintain a full-staffed dispatch center. According to meeting notes obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, full staffing would require 33 full-time employees, Tucker said. Currently the Washtenaw County dispatch operation has 14. To date, through 2011, the current level of staffing by the county has led to 5,000 hours of overtime, forcing current staff to work double shifts multiple days of the week, she said.

Consolidated Dispatch: Management Review

Ann Arbor chief of police Barnett Jones was invited to the podium by Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) to give an overview.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) and chief of police Barnett Jones.

Jones reviewed his time as chief in Ann Arbor, which began six years ago. After four months on the job, he said, he’d been told he’d need to reduce staff. Since then, it’s been six years of reducing staff. In the course of those reductions, he said, he didn’t touch dispatch. It’s one of the core areas – patrol, investigation and dispatch. He reminded the council that he had presented the buyout option to the council to induce early retirements in 2009, which they’d approved. That had resulted in 26 people taking early retirement, two of whom were dispatchers. Those positions were then replaced, he said.

For this round of reductions, he said, he’d tried to come up with a way to keep his people employed. He first called the sheriff to explore the possibility that Ann Arbor could take over the sheriff’s dispatch, to perhaps generate revenue through the dispatch operation. Jones alluded to statutory mandates that prevent the sheriff from doing that. So they had looked at it the other way – with the sheriff taking over Ann Arbor’s dispatching operation. Later during council deliberations, sheriff Jerry Clayton said the proposal was cost-neutral from the county’s perspective.

Jones told councilmembers they’d seen some of the notes – alluding to the information that had been described during public commentary. When you brainstorm, he said, you throw every idea you can think of on the wall. The point is to try to save jobs, he said. Of the current Ann Arbor dispatchers, 13 or 14 of them would be employed under the consolidation, he said. His reality is that he faces a $1.2 million deficit. To meet that target without consolidation, he’d need to eliminate some dispatchers and officers, he said.

[Later during deliberations, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) invited a dispatcher to comment from the podium, who noted that on either scenario, with or without consolidation, she'll be losing her job.]

Jones presented the consolidation as good public policy because it helps keep patrol officers on the street.

Clayton also contended that the dispatch consolidation is good public policy. His office was there to assist the city, he said. He compared Ann Arbor’s situation with that faced by Ypsilanti previously. Ypsilanti was faced with the choice of laying off a police officer or firefighter. In that instance, Ypsilanti dispatchers applied for jobs to the county and they were brought in to the county dispatching organization, Clayton said. The approach in Ann Arbor would be similar, he said. He confirmed that if a decision is made to consolidate, those who are laid off from Ann Arbor dispatch would not be guaranteed a job.

He described how there would be a transition period of around six months while separate dispatching would continue as the dispatchers are cross-trained – county dispatchers for the city of Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor dispatchers for Washtenaw County.

Responding to comments made during public commentary about the quality of service, Clayton allowed that right now the sheriff’s office doesn’t have enough staff. Even under those conditions, he said, county dispatchers deliver excellent service.

Consolidated Dispatch: Budget Context

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) noted the $1.2 million projected shortfall for the police department for the FY 2013 budget year, and compared that to the projected $500,000 annual savings from the consolidated dispatch operation. That still leaves $600,000-$700,000 to make up. She wanted to know how Jones proposed to cover the remaining shortfall. Chief of police Barnett Jones indicated that he did not have a proposal, except to hope the council found another way.

The context of the budget to which Jones alluded during his remarks has changed as the result of a new contract signed by the police officers union (AAPOA) in September of this year. The city’s position is that the layoff of four officers would not have been necessary, if the police union had made concessions on their contributions to health and pensions benefits before June 30.

During deliberations, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) noted that the $1.2 million projected shortfall in the public safety services area had been based on the analysis of a previous city administrator [Roger Fraser]. Kunselman said he was interested in getting a budget analysis from Steve Powers, the new city administrator.

Another change in the context for the $1.2 million projected shortfall is on the revenue side. From the city’s CFO Tom Crawford, Kunselman elicited Crawford’s expectation that property tax revenues next year could show an increase compared with this year.

At multiple points during the evening, including deliberations on the consolidated dispatch, mayor John Hieftje talked about a plan to preserve police officer staffing levels – it currently appears that nine officers will retire around the beginning of the year. The city is looking to rehire the officers just recently laid off. For the remaining five positions, there are around 400 applications for those jobs. The savings from the new AAPOA contract and the anticipated savings from the consolidated dispatch, Hieftje said, get the city where it needs to be to preserve current staffing levels.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) drew out the fact that there would be transitional costs associated with the consolidation of somewhere between $300,000-$500,000 in the first year.

Consolidated Dispatch: Adequacy of Service

At one point, Hieftje asked Jones to confirm that dispatching services would be adequate under the consolidation. Jones provided that confirmation. He said he’d gotten a lot of grey hair over this decision. Part of his comfort, he said, was based on the continuing liaison that would exist between the police department and the consolidated dispatch.

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) asked for a review of some of the metrics that would be used to determine if performance was being maintained. Jones gave the basic industry standard that 90% of calls should be answered in less than 10 seconds. The consultant Kerry Laycock also indicated that one component of performance can be monitored by calling back citizens who make calls to 911 to get a measure of their satisfaction. A final component is to get feedback from officers who are dispatched. That part is still under development.

Smith wanted to know what happens if the metrics show the consolidation is failing. Jones indicated that the whole process of gradual consolidation would need to be undone in reverse. That’s why this has to work going forward, he said.

Higgins confirmed with sheriff Clayton that the city could get performance metrics as often as it liked – the city is the customer, Clayton said.

Consolidated Dispatch: Human Resources

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) got clarification that 13-14 Ann Arbor dispatchers would be able to apply for jobs under the consolidated dispatch operation. He got confirmation that their pay would be less than they currently make. From the audience someone called out the question: “How much less?” Although Hieftje admonished attendees not to interrupt the meeting that way, the figure was tracked down in response to the question: On average, county dispatchers make $9,000 less than city of Ann Arbor dispatchers.

Hieftje allowed that it’s not a slight but rather a significant difference. Higgins noted that dispatchers are not the city’s highest paid employees. [Dispatchers earned $44,000-$56,000 for FY 2010].

Higgins also wanted to know what the difference in benefits is between the county and the city. Laycock said that human resources staff had described them as comparable. Sheriff Clayton said that among county workers, the dispatchers had very good benefits. Higgins was assured she’d be provided with a benefits comparison.

Consolidated Dispatch: Council Deliberations – Bid to Postpone

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) made a bid to postpone the vote, based on uncertainties associated with the changing budget picture. Asked by Kunselman, city administrator Steve Powers said that with respect to timing, the contract did not need to be approved that night.

Kunselman invited one of the dispatchers in the audience to comment from the rank-and-file staff perspective, given that the council had just heard at length from the management side. [It's not common that the council invites an audience member to address the body outside of time set aside for public commentary, but the council's rules explicitly provide for that possibility.]

Mayor John Hieftje’s response to Kunselman’s gambit was first to note that the council had already heard from dispatchers during public commentary, but he quickly adopted the position that he had no objection to hearing more.

The dispatcher who approached the podium reviewed how the current operation is already co-located and that the call-taking function [which is a different task from dispatching] is already merged. She suggested that the two operations should truly be merged instead of the sheriff’s department taking over the Ann Arbor dispatching. The dispatchers themselves, she said, were out of the loop. She said they’d been told they’d all be laid off – that had shaken up people’s lives.

She told the council that dispatchers are extremely frustrated. Although there are dispatchers who have worked over 20 years, she hadn’t worked that long, so she noted that she’d lose her job regardless of the consolidation. She invited councilmembers to take the time to see the dispatch center. She told them they couldn’t make an educated vote without seeing it for themselves.

Kunselman’s motion to postpone nearly died for lack of a seconding motion, but that eventually came from Mike Anglin (Ward 5).

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) asked city administrator Steve Powers if during a delay on the vote, Powers could think of a reason that would change his mind. Powers said he doesn’t approve an agenda item for the council’s consideration unless he supports it. He said it’s unfortunate that there’s disruption for dispatchers and a difference in compensation. For reasons that had already been enumerated, Powers said he supported the consolidation. Responding to the invitation the council had heard to visit the city’s dispatch center, he encouraged them to visit other dispatch centers where consolidated dispatch was already being done – fire, police, and EMS. Consolidated dispatching is being done all over, and it makes sense for the city at this time, he concluded.

Hieftje, noting the length of time that the proposal had been in the works, said he wouldn’t support postponement.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) said she was confident that Powers and Jones will ensure that response times are maintained. She pointed out that the sheriff’s office has experience doing shared dispatch. She also pointed to the fact that the consolidation of dispatch operations would help qualify the city for the state of Michigan’s Economic Vitality Incentive Plan. The MEVIP has replaced statutory state-shared revenue as the means that the state legislature uses to distribute to local governmental units their portion of the state’s sales tax.

Lumm and Sabra Briere (Ward 1) wondered if postponing the vote would affect the city’s opportunity to qualify for the MEVIP. City CFO Tom Crawford indicated that the city’s application needed to include items that the city had already accomplished and things that are planned. It would be described to the state as “planned” in any case, he said, even if the vote were taken that night.

Crawford also indicated it’s not clear what the state will do next year. He said it’s become clear that there was an impression that communities are not doing much in the way collaboration. Crawford said the state is learning that Ann Arbor as well as many other communities have a long history of collaborations. Crawford gave towing as another possible example of collaboration with the county.

Outcome on postponement: Only Kunselman voted for postponement, and the motion failed.

Consolidated Dispatch: Council Deliberations – Finale

There were no substantive deliberations after the vote on postponement.

Outcome: Kunselman joined his colleagues in the unanimous vote for dispatch consolidation. The consolidation will also require approval by the Washtenaw County board of commissioners.

Greenbelt Expanded Boundaries

Before the council for its consideration was final approval to a change in the boundaries for the city’s greenbelt program – an open space preservation effort funded by a 30-year 0.5 mill tax approved by voters in 2003.

The council approved the addition of the southwest and northeast corners to the greenbelt-eligible area. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

The area in and around Ann Arbor eligible for land preservation under the greenbelt program is defined in Chapter 42 of the Ann Arbor city code. The council has expanded the boundaries once before, in 2007. The current proposal is essentially to square-off the area by adding a mile to the southwest in Lodi Township, and one mile to the northeast in Salem Township. [.jpg of map by The Chronicle showing original boundaries, the 2007 expansion and the proposed expansion]

Another amendment to Chapter 42 was also considered by the council. It would allow a parcel of land adjacent to the greenbelt boundary to be eligible for protection, if it is also adjacent to a parcel under the same ownership within the greenbelt boundary. The greenbelt advisory commission had voted to recommend the ordinance changes at its Sept. 14, 2011 meeting. The council gave the changes initial approval at its Nov. 21, 2011 meeting.

Since the start of the greenbelt program, roughly $18 million has been invested by the city of Ann Arbor in protecting open space. That has been matched by roughly $19 million from other sources, including the federal Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program, surrounding townships, Washtenaw County and landowner donations. That funding has protected roughly 3,200 acres in 27 separate transactions.

Thomas Partridge spoke during the public hearing on these changes, calling for priority to be given to affordable housing.

Greenbelt Expanded Boundaries: Council Deliberations

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who serves as the city council representative to the greenbelt advisory commission, led off discussion with the introduction to some essentially administrative amendments to the wording. He stressed that the boundary change alters the total area of the greenbelt-eligible properties by 6%. He characterized the change as “normalizing” the boundary changes that were already approved in 2007. At that time, the area now to be included was not added, because of the limited willingness of townships in those areas to participate in the greenbelt program – Salem and Lodi townships. However, those townships are now interested in participating.

A breakdown of percentage contribution of different entities to the 26 greenbelt land transactions that have been completed to date. Of the 26, 12 did not include any township contributions. Two of the 12 transactions did not have any other governmental source, but had landowner donations. (Image links to higher resolution file. Chart by The Chronicle)

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) drew out the fact that there are two components to the amendment of the boundaries. Only one of them makes sense, she said – the one regarding properties that are adjacent to the boundary.

Lumm said she did not support the other component, which is the expansion of the area. She said that conceptually the arguments were similar to those the council had discussed during the debate about public art. It’s not about all or nothing, she said – it’s about making adjustments. She stressed the difference between the voter-approved millage and the Percent for Art program.

She asked: Is there any point at which the council believes the boundary goes too far? At what point, she asked, would asking voters about repurposing the millage revenues be considered? Annual revenues from the millage proceeds exceed by $1 million the bond payments. [The strategy was to take out a bond using future millage proceeds to pay for it, so that there would quickly be cash on hand to take advantage of land deals as the opportunities arose, instead of waiting to accumulate the cash through the millage.]

Lumm noted that this is the second proposed expansion of the greenbelt-eligible area. The original compact with voters, Lumm said, was to spend 1/3 of the millage proceeds inside the city and 2/3 outside. The goal had also been to achieve matching contributions for acquisitions that would make the city’s contribution 1/3 of the cost. But to date, she said, 27% of the investment has been on parkland inside Ann Arbor, and on average Ann Arbor has contributed 49% of the cost – higher than the 1/3 target.

In the meantime, Lumm said, Ann Arbor’s own city parks are starved for funds. She thanked Hohnke for bringing forward a smaller proposed expansion than what some people might have wanted. She said the council owes it to taxpayers to monitor the spending. At what point, she asked, are we spending money because it’s there? Until there’s clarity about that, she said, she wouldn’t support the boundary expansion.

Hohnke said that Lumm raised some good points. He said he appreciated her desire to maximize fiscal resources. He contended that the “slight” boundary expansion does that, by providing for additional opportunities that would serve the original purpose of the millage. It would also give the city the opportunity to leverage additional funds, to invest in open space of high quality, and it’s a way to help tax dollars go further.

Mayor John Hieftje also said good points had been raised. He suggested that this would be the final and last expansion of the boundaries. The corners of the area represent unique opportunities and a chance to find new partners. Hieftje cited the language on one of the main pieces of literature from 2003 millage campaign, which had referred to “other sources” of funding. That was one of the things that has changed, he said – the state of Michigan previously had a program and that’s the difference in the city’s ability to achieve the 1/3 goal.

Hieftje noted that the amount of funding from outside sources is actually more than equal to the city’s contribution. Hieftje stated that Ann Arbor had been very fortunate in that 90% of federal farmland protection money that’s awarded throughout the state of Michigan comes to the Ann Arbor area.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) agreed that the proposed changes are minor, but looking at the map, the boundaries completely avoid Ypsilanti Township. She wondered if there could ever come a time when people look at that irregular boundary and consider expanding.

Hohnke indicated that he did not think there was really high quality land there that would be worth considering and that’s not likely to change, he ventured, because it’s an already-built environment. From the audience, greenbelt advisory commission chair Dan Ezekiel and Ginny Trocchio, a Conservation Fund staff member who helps administer the program, nodded their agreement with Hohnke’s assessment of the missing southeast corner of the greenbelt-eligible area.

Outcome: The council voted to approve the expansion of the greenbelt-eligible area, as well as the adjacent property provision, over dissent from Lumm.

“No Newspaper” Law

On the agenda was a resolution revising the city’s littering and handbill ordinance that is meant to give residents the ability to regulate the kinds of newspapers that are deposited onto their property. The ordinance was aimed in part at publications that are delivered free in the community. The ordinance would make it a misdemeanor to deposit a newspaper on someone’s property, if a notice forbidding delivery of that specific newspaper is posted on the front door. The misdemeanor is punishable by a combination of a fine up to $500 and 90 days in jail. [.pdf of marked up version of ordinance]

The ordinance would also create liability not just for the person who might deposit commercial handbills or newspapers onto someone’s property, but also for the corporate entities who “cause” that activity to take place.

First Amendment issues raised by the city’s attempt to restrict unwanted delivery include the possibility that the proposed ordinance has created a content-based distinction between newspapers and commercial handbills. [.pdf of City of Fresno v. Press Communications, Inc. (1994)] However, the U.S. Supreme Court has established a right of residents to regulate the degree to which they must contend with printed matter delivered to their property. [.pdf of Rowan v. U.S. Post Office Dept. (1970)] And in a more recent New York Supreme Court case, the court ruled that “neither a publisher nor a distributor has any constitutional right to continue to throw a newspaper onto the property of an unwilling recipient after having been notified not to do so.” [.pdf of Kenneth Tillman v. Distribution Systems of America]

The initial consideration of the ordinance had been postponed already at the council’s previous meeting, and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), who sponsored the measure, indicated that another delay would be requested. His remarks suggested that some publishers had responded in such a way as to alleviate some of the concern that had prompted the perception that an ordinance was required.

Some back and forth ensued about tabling compared to postponing to a specific date. The council settled on tabling. Sabra Briere (Ward 1) cautioned that according to the council’s rules, if a resolution is not taken back up off the table for consideration in six months, the measure is considered demised.

Responding to Briere’s concern, Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who co-sponsored the ordinance, indicated that the ordinance was expected to be taken up again sometime in January 2012.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to table the revision to the ordinance on handbills and littering.

New Investment Policy

Before the council for its consideration was the authorization of a new investment policy. The item had been on the council’s agenda at its Nov. 21 meeting, but was postponed at the request of Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), who wanted to have the council’s budget committee review the policy first.

Highlights of the policy changes include the extension on maturity timelines for several different instruments: U.S. Treasury Obligations (from seven to 15 years); Federal Agency Securities (from seven to 10 years); Federal Instrumentality Securities (from seven to 10 years), Certificates of Deposit (from three to five years), and Obligations of the State of Michigan (three to 10 years).

Balanced against those extensions were some changes to portfolio restrictions that prevent the city from having too many longer-term maturity instruments: no more than 25% of the portfolio may be invested in securities with maturities greater than seven years, and no more than 12.5% of the portfolio may be invested in securities with maturities more than 11 years.

During the scant deliberations, Jane Lumm (Ward 2) thanked staff for providing answers to her questions about the policy changes. She supported the policy changes because they would allow the city to be less reactive.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the change in the investment policy.

Dexter Avenue Sidewalk Special Assessment

The council was asked to consider a special assessment on property owners along Dexter Avenue east of Maple Road for a total of $11,651, to pay for sidewalks. The one-time payments by the individual property owners are due June 1, 2012. Required payments range from $30.57 to more than $3,000. The project has a total cost of $92,955 – $74,364 of that amount will be paid with federal money. For the north side of Dexter Avenue, the project includes construction of a new sidewalk for a portion of the stretch, as well as a new curb and gutter for the street across from Veteran’s Memorial Park. For the south side of the street, the project includes a new curb along Veteran’s Memorial Park.

The council started the multi-step process for levying the special assessment at its Sept. 19, 2011 meeting.

Because of the special assessments, the Dexter Avenue sidewalk improvements do not require a portion of the project budget to be allocated for public art. From the city’s public art ordinance: “A capital improvement project funded by special assessments or improvement charges is not subject to the requirements of subsection (1) of this section.”

During the required public hearing, Thomas Partridge asked that the resolution be postponed so that it could be re-examined.

During the brief council deliberations, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) said that when special assessments are imposed, those whose property is subject to the assessment are typically resistant. [For example, for the special assessment that funded part of the non-motorized pathway along Washtenaw Avenue, which was held in September 2010, several property owners spoke at the public hearing, expressing their opposition.] He allowed that the relatively small amounts involved may have affected the lack of resistance. [Many property owners were assessed as little as $30.57.]

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the special assessment.

Council Housekeeping

The council handled several housekeeping items, as it does every year shortly after the new edition of the city council is elected. That includes appointment of council subcommittee membership as well as council representatives to other organizations. It also includes the adoption of council rules.

Council Housekeeping: Committees

Some assignments are for subcommittees of the council, while others are for city council appointments to other public bodies.

Compared to last year, the most significant change to the council’s committee structure was the separation of the joint administration & labor committee into a council administration committee and a council labor committee. On the labor side, Jane Lumm (Ward 2) was slotted in for Stephen Rapundalo, whom she defeated in the Nov. 8 election. Shuffling among other councilmembers, who all returned to this edition of the council, included the replacement of Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) on the labor committee by Sandi Smith (Ward 1).

The council administration committee retains the same membership as the former administration and labor committee, except for Rapundalo, who was replaced by Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). Taylor also took over Rapundalo’s council appointment to the local development finance authority (LDFA) board. [Google spreadsheet contrasting 2011 with 2012 city council appointments]

Changes to committee assignments were on the whole relatively minimal. That was due in part to the fact that Lumm was given four of Rapundalo’s previous committee appointments, including labor budget, liquor control, and the housing & human services advisory board. Lumm was also assigned to represent the city council on the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) partnerships committee, relieving Margie Teall (Ward 4) of that duty.

Teall will also no longer represent the council on the Washtenaw Metro Alliance – Sabra Briere (Ward 1) will pick up that responsibility. Of the veteran councilmembers, Teall’s committee assignments reduced the most, as she’ll also no longer serve on the city environmental commission – a spot also picked up by Briere. At the meeting, Teall indicated that she’d taken herself off the environmental commission, saying she would miss it, but would keep in touch. She said she was delighted that Briere would fill that spot. Teall expressed appreciation for everything that environmental coordinator Matt Naud and commissioners have done through the years. She said she felt that her departure would also open up the communication so more people know what’s going on.

Teall – along with Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) – will also no longer need to serve on the committee established by the council to negotiate a new contract with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority under which the DDA operates the city’s public parking system. At the Dec. 5 meeting, the council formally dissolved the committee, the parking contract having been signed in May.

Council Housekeeping: Rules

Also before the council was the adoption of its rules, which included essentially one change. Included in council minutes currently are all emails received by councilmembers on their government accounts. The revision to the rules stipulates that only those emails related to the subject matter of the meeting will be included in the meeting minutes.

Council Housekeeping: LDFA

The council was asked to consider three appointments to the board of the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti SmartZone local development finance authority (LDFA): former councilmember Stephen Rapundalo, current councilmember Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), and Eric Jacobson.

Of the positions on the 9-member LDFA board, the city of Ann Arbor appoints six and the city of Ypsilanti appoints three. One of the six Ann Arbor spots is for a member of the Ann Arbor city council, which had been held by Rapundalo, until he was defeated in the Nov. 8 general election by Jane Lumm (Ward 2). Taylor is thus replacing Rapundalo as the city council representative. Rapundalo’s appointment is to fill an existing additional vacancy on the board.

Jacobson was also appointed to the LDFA to fill a vacancy on the board.

The local development finance authority is funded through a tax increment finance (TIF) mechanism for the same geographic district as the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti downtown development authorities. The LDFA currently receives no revenue from the Ypsilanti portion of its district. The taxes on which the increment is captured are local school taxes. The impact of the LDFA tax capture is spread across school districts statewide, due to the way that local school taxes are pooled by the state of Michigan and redistributed to local districts.

Based on data available through A2OpenBook, in fiscal year 2011, the LDFA generated $1.475 million in tax capture. The LDFA contracts with Ann Arbor SPARK to operate a business accelerator.

Council Housekeeping: AATA Board

Also at the Dec. 5 meeting, the council handled an appointment unrelated in its timing to the new edition of the council. Mayor John Hieftje nominated the city’s transportation program manager, Eli Cooper, to serve on the board of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. On confirmation by the city council, Cooper would fill the vacancy on the AATA board left by Sue McCormick.

McCormick is leaving her post at the city of Ann Arbor as public services area administrator to take a job as head of the Detroit water and sewerage department. McCormick’s last day on the job is Dec. 16. City administrator Steve Powers announced at the Dec. 5 meeting that the city’s head of systems planning, Craig Hupy, will fill in for McCormick on an interim basis. Powers reported that Hupy had no interest in the permanent position.

Cooper’s city position as transportation program manager falls under the city’s systems planning unit. The council previously appointed Cooper to serve on the AATA board on June 20, 2005. He served through June 2008, and was replaced on the board by current board chair Jesse Bernstein.

There is not a spot reserved for a city of Ann Arbor employee on the AATA board. When Cooper previously served on the AATA board, along with McCormick, their service prompted an op-ed in The Ann Arbor News criticizing the appointment of city employees to citizen boards. [.pdf of "Let's Stick With Autonomous Appointees for Citizen Boards"]

Outcome on all city council housekeeping items, including appointments: The council voted unanimously to approve its rules, calendar, and all committee appointments, many of which were made with separate resolutions.

Communications and Comment

Every city council agenda contains multiple slots for city councilmembers and the city administrator to give updates or make announcements about important issues that are coming before the city council. And every meeting typically includes public commentary on subjects not necessarily on the agenda.

Comm/Comm: Warming Center

Several people signed up for public commentary reserved time at the start of the meeting, to address the council on the topic of establishing a 24/7 warming center. People who sign up in advance for one of the reserved spots are given priority if they’re addressing an agenda item. Those who signed up to speak about the warming center cited the minutes of the Oct. 19 Ann Arbor housing commission meeting (attached to the agenda as a communication item from the city clerk) as the agenda item they wanted to speak about. The main business of that meeting was the hiring of the new executive director, but speakers did not address the subject matter of the housing commission meeting in any obvious way.

The tactic could be explained in part by the experience of University of Michigan student Orian Zakai at the previous council meeting, who had been unable to claim one of the 10 reserved public commentary slots, partly because several people who wanted to advocate for public art funding, which was an agenda item, had signed up for a reserved spot and had priority over her. Zakai had stayed until the end of that meeting, when unlimited unreserved public commentary is allowed, in order to deliver her remarks.

Again at the Dec. 5 meeting, Zakai addressed the council on the topic of establishing a warming center that would operate 24 hours a day. She ticked through the proposed policies of such a center and asked the council for assistance in finding a space to locate it.

Arthur Endsley introduced himself as a research scientist living and working in Ann Arbor. He told the council he’d toured the Delonis Center, as well as a homeless encampment, Camp Take Notice, and the breakfasts sponsored by St. Andrews.

It should be obvious, he said, that winter is upon us. He thanked the council for the $25,000 they’d appropriated to keep the warming center at the Delonis Center open this year. He wondered what will happen next year. He described those who needed a warming center here in Ann Arbor as global economic refugees living in our own community. He contended that the Delonis Center had a 80% recidivism rate. [According to Ellen Schulmeister, executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, which operates the Delonis Center, the 80% figure refers to the percentage of people who move from the Delonis Center to sustainable housing and who are still housed after one year.] Permanent solutions are needed, Endsley said. Responding to proposed cuts of the public art program, he said, some had contended that if we cut art, we are cutting down our own image. Endsley wondered what it says about our image if some of our residents are freezing to death in the streets.

Lily Au asked the council to support the effort to establish a warming center.

Alan Haber addressed the council in support of the warming center, in the guise of addressing the revision to the handbill and litter ordinance that was on the agenda. He had a leaflet, that supported establishing a warming center, among other things. He read it and asked the council if the leaflet was legal under the handbill ordinance. A leaflet like that, he said, should be able to go anywhere.

Three people also stayed until the end of the meeting, well past midnight, in order to address the council.

Judy Bonnell-Wenzel spoke in favor of support for a warming center.

David Coleman told the council he’d been living in the city about five months as a musician and artist. He told them he spoke from the standpoint of someone who is homeless, who has nowhere to go. The homeless are not all addicts or alcoholics, he said. He read aloud a hand-written statement.

From David Coleman's statement he read aloud to the council towards the conclusion of the Dec. 5 meeting. The warming center is intended to be "a place to go that's inviting, safe and warm, a place that rescues, rehabilitates, enlightens, edifies and empowers ..."

University of Michigan student Alexandra Hoffman addressed the perception that perhaps a 24/7 warming center did not need to be opened or that it was too large a project to accomplish. She encouraged the council to think positively. The group had thus far been frustrated with real estate issues – they haven’t found a location for the center. But as for staffing, volunteers are ready. She suggested the vacant Georgetown Mall and former Borders store on East Liberty as possible locations. She told the council she’s from Toronto, and their youth shelter is right on the main street of town – it’s something to be proud of, not something to be swept under the rug, she said.

During his communications time, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) took up the suggestion of 415 W. Washington as a possible location for a warming center, noting that it’s a publicly owned facility. He ventured that perhaps the council needed to direct the creative use of the property.

During her communications, Sandi Smith (Ward 1) noted that the city spends significantly more than 1% of its money on housing and human services. She also noted the emergency allocation the council had made to the Delonis Center to keep its warming center open. She rejected the idea that there’s a choice to be made between funding art and funding human services.

Responding to Kunselman’s call for the exploration of 415 W. Washington as a possible location for a warming center, mayor John Hieftje made clear he didn’t think that was a realistic possibility. He reported that he, Margie Teall (Ward 4) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5) had been working with the Arts Alliance and the Allen Creek Greenway Conservancy to turn 415 W. Washington into a community art center and greenway park. The real problem they can’t get around is the condition of the building, he said. It’s filled with asbestos and jagged pieces of metal. It would take more than $1 million to make the building usable, he said. The Arts Alliance would likely withdraw from the project.

Comm/Comm: Deportation

Lourdes Salazar Bautista appeared before the council to appeal for their support in her fight to stay in the U.S. She faces deportation on Dec. 27. Laura Sanders of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR) also spoke in support of Bautista. Sanders noted that Bautista had been in the U.S. for 14 years, she works and pays taxes and has never committed a crime. Sanders attributed Bautista’s imminent deportation on Dec. 27 to Ann Arbor’s proximity to Canada, and the need for federal immigration official to meet deportation quotas. In the next few weeks, she said, the council would be asked to sign a letter of support.

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) responded to the commentary during his communications by saying that it’s not possible to do very much with local legislation. But he noted that the council could give its input. He said that by executive order, Bautista could avoid deportation.

By way of background, Ann Arbor’s local policy on federal immigration policy is expressed in a 2003 city council resolution, which among other things calls on the AAPD to “limit local enforcement actions with respect to immigration matters to penal violations of federal immigration law (as opposed to administrative violations) except in cases where the Chief of Police determines there is a legitimate public safety concern.”

Comm/Comm: Budget Retreat

City administrator Steve Powers suggested that the council hold its budget retreat for 2014-15 in June 2012. Mayor John Hieftje said he did not think it’s necessary to have a retreat in December.

Comm/Comm: Crosswalks

Kathy Griswold told the council she had a masters degree in public policy and an MBA from the University of Michigan and had served 15 years on the transportation safety committee. Still, she said, she’s not qualified to make traffic laws – she’s not a professional engineer. She criticized the council’s revision to the crosswalk ordinance in 2010, which the council is now revising further, as giving pedestrians a false sense of security.

Griswold told the council that transportation engineering is not always intuitive. She described a pamphlet available in the city hall lobby as a creative marketing tool, but contended that in fact, “pedestrians don’t rule.” She’d spoken to a driver education instructor, who had told her the ordinance is a major problem. She pointed councilmembers to a 30-minute program she’d recorded for CTN as well as to the website she’d created: seekids.org.

Comm/Comm: Thomas Partridge

Thomas Partridge called for expanded access to affordable housing, transportation and education and made complaints about illegal discrimination.

Comm/Comm: Sewage

Kermit Schlansker called for the use of sewage in the creation of energy.

Present: Jane Lumm, Mike Anglin, Margie Teall, Sabra Briere, Sandi Smith, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Kunselman, Marcia Higgins, John Hieftje, Christopher Taylor, Carsten Hohnke.

Next council meeting: Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the second floor council chambers of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. [confirm date]

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Compared to last year, the most significant change to the council’s committee structure was the separation of the joint administration and labor committee into a council administration committee and a council labor committee. On the labor side, Jane Lumm (Ward 2) was slotted in for Stephen Rapundalo, whom she defeated in the Nov. 8 election. Shuffling among other councilmembers, who all returned to this edition of the council, included the replacement of Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) on the labor committee by Sandi Smith (Ward 1).

The council administration committee retains the same membership as the former administration and labor committee, except for Rapundalo, who was replaced by Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). Taylor also took over Rapundalo’s council appointment to the local development finance authority (LDFA) board. [Google spreadsheet contrasting 2011 with 2012 city council appointments]

Changes to committee assignments were on the whole relatively minimal. That was due in part to the fact that Lumm was given four of Rapundalo’s previous committee appointments, including labor budget, liquor control, and housing & human services advisory board. Lumm was also assigned to represent the city council on the Ann Arbor downtown development authority’s (DDA) partnerships committee, relieving Margie Teall (Ward 4) of that duty.

Teall will also no longer represent the council on the Washtenaw Metro Alliance – Sabra Briere (Ward 1) will pick up that responsibility. Of the veteran councilmembers, Teall’s committee assignments reduced the most, as she’ll also no longer serve on the city environmental commission – a spot also picked up by Briere. Teall – along with Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) – will also no longer need to serve on the committee established by the council to negotiate a new contract with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority under which the DDA operates the city’s public parking system. At the Dec. 5 meeting, the council formally dissolved the committee, the parking contract having been signed in May.

At the meeting the council also adopted its rules, which included essentially one change. Included in council minutes currently are all emails received by councilmembers on their government accounts. The revision to the rules stipulates that only those emails related to the subject matter of the meeting will be included in the meeting minutes.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]